of  tbe 

Onitjersitp  of  sitionh  Carolina 


'^^e  Cameron  Collection 

3n  SPcmorp  of 

15cnne!)an  Cameron 

^cptcmbEr  9,  1854  =  June  1,  1925 

CrustcE  of  tl)c  ^Jnibersitp  of  il^ortl)  Carolina 
1891=1925 

C378 

.11:3  - 

1S59H 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00036721084 


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FIFTY  YEAPiS  SINCE: 

AN  ADDRESS, 


DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE  ALUMNI   OF   THE  UNIVERSITY   OF 
NORTH-CAROLINA, 


OK    THE     rTH     OP    JUKE,     1859 

(Bflng  the  day  bdoro  the  Annual  Commencement.) 


BY 

WILLIAM    HOOPER, 


0«B  OP  TSa  SOCIETY   OP  /LUMNt. 


Forsan  et  ha^  oliiu  meminlsje  juvabit:. 

ViEO. 

Think  oft,  ye  brethren- 
Think  *of  the  gladness  of  our  youthful  prime; 
It  oometh  not  again— that  golden  time. 

MviTTO  TO  Sttjdent  Lite  m  (tEBMa:*t. 


PtAIis^tb  ip  ©rlrrr  of  tt*   Sotttij. 


RALEIGH: 

HOLDEN   &  WILSON,    "STANDARD"   OFFICE. 

1859. 


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PREFACE. 


Those  who  heard  the  following  Address  delivered,  will  recollect,  that 
owing  to  want  of  time,  much  of  it  was  not  read.  They  will,  therefore, 
not  be  surprised  to  find  here  much  that  they  did  not  hear.  The 
author  could  not  wish  for  his  essay  a  happier  fate  than  that  it  should 
receive  from  the  reading  public  the  same  approbation  that  was  accorded 
to  it  by  a  most  good-natured  audience,  rendered  so  by  the  exhilarating 
presence  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

June,  1859 


ADDRESS 

BEFORE  THE  ALUMNI  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 


OF 

NORTH-CAROLINA. 


Brothers  of  the  Alumni — 

Literary  Children  or  o^sK  Alma  Mater  : 

We  come  togetlier  at  this  annual  festival,  to  salute  and  con- 
gratulate each  other — to  look  back  on  the  past  and  compare 
it  with  the  present^to  gratify  an  honest  pride  in  contrasting: 
the  feeble  and  sickly  infancy  of  our  literary  mother  with  her 
present  vigorous  maturity,  and  to  breathe  a  common  filial 
prayer  that  that  vigorous  maturity  ma}'  long  flourish,  and  not 
soon  be  succeeded  by  a  languishing  old  age. 

Two  years  ago,  I  delivered,  at  another  College,  what  I  ex- 
pected would  be  my  final  offering  at  the  shrine  of  the  muses; 
but  since  the  committee,  representing  the  public  opinion,  have 
not  consented  to  give  me  a  discharge  from  this  mode  of  pay- 
ing a  debt  of  filial  gratitude,  I  submit  to  their  dictation,  being 
glad  to  receive,  in  sucli  appointment,  their  flattering  attesta- 
tion tliat  they  yet  detect  no  mark  of  senility  disqualif}'ing 
me  for  appearing  before  a  commencement  audience,  and 
especially  the  audience  of  1859,  so  highly  honored  by  the 
presence  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic.  ,  I  am  proud 
to  find,  from  two  astronomical  observations,  that  Chapel  Hill 
lies  right  in  the  orbit  of  Jupiter  and  his  satellites,  and  that 
the  period  of  his  revolution  is  about  twelve  years.  I  beg  the 
professor  of  astronomy  here  to  make  this  entry  in  his  Ephc- 
iiteris,  and  to  look  out  for  the  recurrence  of  the  same  pheno- 
menon about  1871  ;  if  indeed,  at  that  time,  the  head  of  this 
great  republic  be  fitly  symbolized  by  that  glorious  planet, 


6 

and  be  not  shivered,  ere  that  cycle  rolls  around,  bj  sonie 
disastrous  concussion,  into  a  score  of  nameless  asteroids.  Mav 
heaven  avert  the  omen  I  Had  I  said  this  at  the  cit}^  of 
Washington,  and  were  I  some  quarter  of  a  century  younger, 
his  Excellency  might  consider  this  exordium  as  the  prelude 
to  some  application  for  ofhce  ;  bnt  on  an  academical  iubilee 
like  this,  and  from  a  speaker  bordering  on  three-score  and 
seven,  he  will  receive  it,  I  trust,  only  as  the  cordial  and 
sincere  expression  of  that  rejoicing  which  we  all  feel  at  the 
lionor  of  this  visit.  Yes,  a  trace  from  office-seeking  here  at 
least.  We  are  glad  to  find  that  the  Pi-esident  has  survived 
that  period  of  vexatious  importunity — that  crown  of  thorns 
which  every  President  is  obliged  to  wear  on  his  lirst  acces- 
sion,—and  that  he  is  likely,  from  present  appearances,  to  serve 
his  country  for  many  years  to  come. 

I  believe  it  is  expected  of  the  speaker  to  the  Alumni  that 
he  shall  entertain  them  with  reminiscences  of  persons  and 
things  long  gone  by — the  longer  the  better.  Hence  the  selec- 
tion, for  this  year,  of  your  humble  servant,  there  being  very 
few  now  surviving  who  can  number  half  a  century  from 
their  graduation.  And  although  I  am  neither  a  bachelor  nor 
a  widower,  and  therefore  have  no  interest  in  making  myself 
out  younger  than  I  am  with  my  fair  auditors,  yet  I  will  merely 
hint  to  this  benevolent  assembly  that  although  ft  is  just  fifty 
years  since  I  got  my  sheepskin,  I  was  then  in  my  prcetexta,' 
and  had  not  yet  put  on  the  toga  vlnlis.  I  shall,  however,  be 
happy  if  I  get  through  the  task  of  this  day  without  extorting 
from  some  of  my  hearers  the  exclamation  of  the  Eoman 
satirist:  "The  old  steed  is  broken  down  ;  take  him  from  the 
turf  before  he  disgraces  himself."  * 

Particularly  might  my  friends  be  anxious  about  me  now  as 
having  to  perform  my  part  of  the  duties  of  this  occasion  after 
the  display  of  this  morning.  I  assure  them  that  I  feel  a  great 
degree  of  tranquility  in  that  very  consideration  which  they 
might  deem  a  just  cause  of  agitation  and  disquietude,  to-wit  : 

*  Solve  feenescenteiri  mature  sauus  equum  ne 
Peecet  ad  extremum,  lidendus. — Hon. 


•"1 

•1 


lluit  1  am  snccoeding  thx  orator  of  the  daij.  -  "  1  am  nu  uratoi 
as  Brutus  is.'"  Upon  liira  I  roll  llie  responsibility  of  supplv- 
iny,'  all  the  eloquence  due  to  the  day.  Ilis  shoulders  are  well 
able  to  bear  the  burden  ;  while  to  me  remains  only  the  easier 
pai't  of  the  master  of  ceremonies,  to  announce  to  the  audience : 
'"  Ladies  and  gentlemen  !  the  concert  is  over."  '"^ 

When  I  look  back  through  the  vista  of  those  fifty  years  and 
bring  l)efore  my  "  mind's  eye  "  the  long  train  of  ahinmi  wlu' 
have  risen  to  eminence  and  adorn  their  country,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  I  may  be  indulged  in  something  of  a  spirit 
of  gloj'ving,  if  as  a  professor  of  the  University,  I  have  had 
an}'  share  in  the  formation  of  these  ornaments  of  the  republic. 
I  confess,  when  I  look  over  the  catalogue  of  graduates,  and 
see  so  many  laureled  heads  into  ^vhich  it  was  my  lot  to  pack 
a  portion  of  useful  knowledge,  I  am  elated  with  a  little  of 
that  pride  which  swelled  the  breast  of  the  mother  of  the  gode- 
on  ]\Iount  Olympus,  as  she  looked  at  her  children  arounfl 
her : 

Sec  all  her  progeny,  illustrious  sight ! 

Behold  and  count  them,  as  they  rise  to  light ; 

She  sees  around  her  in  the  blest  abode,  ' 

A  hundred  sons,  and  every  son  a  god ! 

I  have  said  that  it  is  perhaps  expected  of  the  alumni  ad- 
dress, that  it  shall  entertain  you  with  reminiscences;  and  I 
hope  I  shall  not  be  too  severely  judged,  if  in  preparing  this 
entertainment,  I  looked  forward  to  a  hot  day,  a  crowded  _ 
house,  and  a  great  deal  of  grave  business, — all  which  antici- 
pations wai-ranted  me  in  the  selection  of  reminiscences  of  an 
amusing,  as  well  as  of  an  instructive  kind.  Indeed,  a  retros- 
pect of  Chapel  Hill  antiquities,  so  far  back  as  half-a-century. 
must  needs  bring  up  many  a  scene  of  so  comic  a  nature. 

That  to  be  grave,  exceeds  all  power  of  face. 
In  telling  or  in  hearing  of  the  case. 

^  This  paragraph  was  arlded  after  heariug  'he  splendid  speedi  i)f  Mr.  McKae  in  tht- 
ftireaoon. 


The  first  of  the  Waverly  novels  was  entitled  "  Sixty  Years 
Since,"  which  serves  as  a  date  to  the  origin  of  those  wonderful 
compositions.  My  tale  shall  be  entitled  "  Fifty  Years  Since.'' 
though  some  of  my  story  will  embrace  incidents  within  forty 
years  of  the  present  date  ;  and  if  it  fall  (as  of  course  it  will) 
infinitely  below  that  of  the  renowned  Sir  Walter,  in  all  other 
respects,  it  will  rise  above  him  in  one  ;  that  whereas  most  of 
his  is  fiction,  mine  is  sober  fact.  At  least,  I  intend  it  to  b? 
so.  But  it  may  be  with  me  as  it  was  with  Boswell,  in  his 
celebrated  "  Life  of  Dr.  Jolmson."  He  tells  ns  that  it  was 
his  habit,  after  being  in  companj'  with  his  hero,  to  go  imme- 
diately to  his  lodgings  and  record  *"he  sayings  and  doings  of 
the  Dr.,  at  once,  while  they  were  fresh  in  his  memory ;  but 
that  sometimes,  when  circumstances  interfered,  the  facts  lay 
on  his  memory  for  a  day  or  two,  and  that  he  thought  ihei/ 
uiere  the  hetter  of  it— as  they  had  a  chance  to  groic  mellow  ! 

I  hope  that  if  an}^  of  my  co-evals  are  present,  who  can 
look  back  as  far  into  our  antiquities  as  myself,  they  will  ncit 
liave  occasion  to  say,  when  they  hear  some  of  \i\\  recitals  : 
''  There  is  a  fact  that  has  grown  melloio  in  his  memory,''  or 
to  compare  me  with  the  aged  harper  in  Scott's  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel : 

*'  Each  blank  in  faithless  memory  void, 
The  poet's  glowing  thought  supplied." 

it  is  my  part  then,  to-day,  to  go  back  to  the  very  increnah'- 
nia  of  our  college, — the  cradle  of  its  infancy,  and  to  call  up 
recollections  of  some  who  rocked  that  cradle.  And  1  dare 
say  while  I  am  telling  the  story  of  the  poor  and  beggarly 
minority  of  our  ahna  mater,  some  of  her  proud,  saucy  sons  of 
the  present  generation  will  smile  scornfully  at  the  humility 
of  our  origin.  Wlien  1  tell  them  that  the  classes  of  President 
Polk, — of  Governors  Branch,  Brown,  Manly.  Morehead, 
Mosely,  Spaight — of  Judges  Murphy,  Cameron,  Martin, 
Donnell,  Williams,  Mason,  Anderson  ;  of  Senators  Mangum 
and  Haywood — of  Drs.  Hawks,  Morrison,  Green,  ^nd  of 
many  other  graduates  forty  years  back,  eminent  for  merit 


iliough  not  holding  office — when  I  tell  the  prond  collegians 
:)f  the  present  day,  that  these  men  came  out  ot  classes  con- 
sisting of  nine,  ten,  fourteen,  Hfteen,  the  largest  twenty-one, — 
they  will  set  up  a  broad  laugh,  and  think  how  poor  a  figure 
.1  class  of  ten  or  fifteen  must  cut  on  a  commencement  day: 
and  one  will  say;  "  "Why  I  graduated  with  mmnty-jice^'  and 
another :  "  I  with  one  hundred,"  and  another  :  "  I  with  a 
hundred  and  ten."  Well,  I  know  of  no  better  way  to  shelter 
myself  from  the  storm  of  your  ridicule,  than  by  telling  yu 
a  story.  "-Once  upon  a  time,"  says -cEsop,  "  a  fox  brought 
out  her  whole  brood  of  little  foxes,  and  paraded  them  before 
the  lioness,  and  said  :  '  Look  here!  see  what  a  family  I  have, 
whereas  you  have  but  one!'  'I  know  said  the  queen  of 
beasts  that  I  bear  bat  one  at  a  time,  but  then  he  is  a  lion  !' " 
I  would  also  remind  you,  young  classics,  of  the  story  of 
Xiobe,  who  boasted  of  her  twelve  children,  and  crowed  over 
Latona,  who  had  only  two  ;  but  then  Latona's  children  were 
the  sun  and  moon!  Forgive,  young  gentlemen,  these  boast- 
ings of  an  old  man.  You  know  it  is  the  characteristic  of 
such  a  one,  to  overrate  the  past,  and  underrate  the  present. 
I>ut  I  trust  I  am  sufficiently  sensible  of  the  vast  advances 
made  in  all  things  at  Chapel  Hill  since  my  day,  to  do  full 
justice  to  the  present  age.  You  have  turned  the  wild  into  a 
o-arden.  You  have  substituted  for  the  meagre  bill  of  fare 
with  M'hich  our  minds  were  obliged  to  content  themselves,  a 
table  rich  in  all  the  stores  of  learning  which  a  half-century 
of  nnexavnpled  progress  has  heaped  upon  it.  I  hope  there- 
fore, when  I  roll  back  the  volume  of  our  college  history,  and 
show  vou  "the  day  of  sm.all  things,"  yon  will  not  despise  too 
much  our  petty  number,  our  humble  accommodations,  our 
?'ude  manners,  our  hard  fare,  our  scanty  rations,  and  our  lim- 
ited cnrricuUirn  of  studies.     Let  not 

G  randeur  hear  with  a  disdainful  smile, 
The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor. 

AMien  1  first  knew  Chapel  Hill  in  January,  1S04,  the  in- 
fant university  was  but  about  six  years  old.     Its  only  finished 


10 

building's  were  M-hat  are  now  called  the  East  Wing  and  tJiD 
Old  Chapel.  The  former  was  then  only  two  stories  high, 
capable  of  accomodating  one  tutor  and  sixty  students  by 
crowding  four  into  a  room.  The  faculty  consisted  of  three  : 
President  Caldwell,  Prof.  Bingham,  and  tutor  Henderson. 
Their  college  titles  were  "  01.d  Joe,""  Old  Slick  "  and  "  Little 
Dick,"  "  Old  Joe,"  however,  was  only  tliirty  years  of  age, 
and  possessed  (as  you  shall  hear  ii>  the  sequel)-  a  formidable 
share  of  youthful  activity.  "Old  Slick"  derived  his  cogno- 
men, not  from  age,  but  from  premature  baldness,  and  the  ex- 
treme glossiness  of  his  naked  scalp.  And  "-Little  Dick,"  a 
cousin  of  the  late  distinguished  Judge  Henderson,  though  he 
had  a  brave  spirit,  was  not  very  well  fitted  by  the  size  of  his 
person,  to  overawe  the  three  score  rude  chaps  over  whom  he 
was  placed  as  solitary  sentinel.  As  a  nurserjt  of  the  college 
thei'e  was  then  a  preparatory  school,  taught  by  Matthew 
Troy  and  Chesley  Daniel.  All  things  were  fashioned  after 
the  model  of  Pi'inceton  college,  and  that  probably  was  fash- 
ioned after  the  model  of  the  Scottish  vmivefsities,  by  old  Dr. 
Witherspoon.  If  this  were  the  case,  it  would  seem  to  ac- 
count for  the  small  quantum  of  instniction  provided  for  us. 
if  Dr.  Johnson  spoke  the  truth  when  he  said  of  Scottish  edu- 
cation, tliat  "there,  every  body  got  a  mouthful,  but  nobody 
got  a  belly-full."  Into  this  preparatory  school,  it  waa  my 
fortune  to  be  inducted,  a  trembling  urchin  of  twelve  years, 
in  the  winter  of  1804.  It  was  then  a  barbarous  custom 
brought  from  the  North,  to  rise  at  that  severe  season  of  the 
year,  before  day-light  and  to  go  to  prayers  by  candle-light : 
and  many  a  cold  wintry  morning  do  I  recollect,  trudging 
along  in  the  dark  at  the  heels  of  Mr.,  afterwards  Dr.  Caldwell,, 
with  whom  I  boarded,  o-n  our  wa}''  to  the  tutor's  room,  to  wait 
for  the  second  bell.  In  that  year  I  read  Sallust's  AYar  of 
Jugurtha  and  Conspiracy  of  Catiline,  under  the  tuition  of 
Mr.  Troy,  of  whom  my  recollections  are  aifectionate,  for  lie- 
was  partial  to  me,  and  taught  me  well  for  those  times.  But 
I  can  recollect  some  of  my  classmates,  grown  young  men^ 
upon  whose  backs  he  tried  a  blister-plaster,  made  of  chinque- 
piu  bark,  to  quicken   the   torpor  of  the  brain.     Is'or  was  he. 


II 

singular  in  his  discipline.  Whether  boys  were  then  duller  ur 
more  idle  than  now,  I  know  not,  but  at  that  time  wliipping 
was  the  order  of  the  day.  I  had,  before  coming  to  Chapel 
Hill,  served  three  years  under  it,  at  lIillsl)oro',  where  Mr. 
Flinn  wielded  liis  terrible  sceptre,  and  realized  in  our  eye. 
the  description  of  Goldsmith  : 

"  A  man  severe  he  was  and  stern  to  view ; 
I  knew  him  well,  and  every  truant  knew ; 
AVell  had  the  boding  tremblers  learned  to  trace 
The  day's  disasters  in  his  morning  face.'' 

This  was  literally  verified  with  us,  when  Dr.  Flinn  came  to 
school  on  Monda}  morning,  with  his  head  tied  with  a  crim- 
son bandana  handkercliief.  It  was  the  bloody  flag  to  us,  and 
the  very  skin  of  our  backs  began  to  tremble. 

After  serving  such  an  apprenticeship  at  Ilillsboro',  the  ex- 
change for  Mr.  Troy's  administration  was  like  exchanging 
the  cowhide  for  the  willow  twig,  for  Mr.  Fliun's  "little 
finger  w^as  thic'^er  than  Mr.  Troy's  loins."  But  now  after 
drawing  aside  the  pall  of  oblivion  from  these  infirmities  of 
the  dead,  I  feel  some  twinges  of  remorse,  as  though  I  had 
rudely  trodden  on  the  ashes  of  my  departed  instructors;  for. 
having  been  myself  a  teacher,  all  my  life,  I  ought  to  knmv 
how  to  make  allowance  for  the  trials  of  teachers ;  and  if  anv 
one  of  you,  my  hearers,  is  accustomed  to  rail  at  the  tyranny 
of  pedagogues,  and  to  tiatter  yourself  with  the  conceit,  that 
if  you  were  one,  you  would  always  be  able  to  control  your 
temper,  I  would  only  address  you  in  the  language  which  the 
advertisement  uses  respecting  sovereign  recipes:  "Try  it.'" 
and  if  in  six  months  yoa  don't  go  and  hang  yourself,  you 
will,  at  least,  have  more  charity  for  teachers,  all  the  days  of 
your  life.  I  told  j'ou  that  1  remembered  Mr.  Troy  with  grat- 
itude ;  but  I  believe  nothing  he  ever  taught  me,  imprinted 
itself  so  deeply  on  my  memory,  as  the  burst  of  eloquence 
which  the  boys  told  me  he  had  made,  when  he  was  a  student, 
upon  the  charms  of  Miss  Hay,  afterwards  the  first  Mrs.  Gas- 
ton.    Troy  was  given  to  the  grandiloquent  style,  and  on  this 


12 


occasion  Miss  Hay,  who  was  the  belle  of  the  day,  with  a 
small  party  came  to  visit  the  Dialectic  library.  It  was  ther. 
kept  in  one  of  the  common  rooms  inhabited  by  fonr  students  ; 
and  you  may  judge  of  the  tumult  that  was  excited  by  every 
such  visitation,  and  how  much  sweeping  and  fixing  up  was 
required,  and  how  jnanj'  frightened  boys  ran  to  the  neigh- 
boring rooms,  and  shut  the  doors,  all  but  a  small  crack  to 
peep  through.  On  this  memorable  occasion,  Troy  had  fixed 
himself  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  whence  he  could  contem- 
plate the  beautiful  apparition  in  silent  ecstacy.  After  she 
was  gone,  the  librarian  called  him  out  of  his  trance,  and  said  : 
**  Well,  Troy,  what  do  you  think  of  her?"  "Oh!  sir,  she's 
enough  to  melt  the  frigidity  of  a  stoic,  and  excite  rapture 
in  the  breast  of  a  hermit;"  to  which  he  might  iiave  added  : 

"  And  like  another  Helen,  has  fired  another  Troy." 

A  man  that  could  talk  in  that  Avay,  appeared  to  me,  in 
those  days,  to  have  reached  the  top  of  Parnassus. 

Having  mentioned  the  library  of  one  of  the  literary  soci- 
eties, I  must  carry  you  back,  ye  proud  Dialectics  and  Philan- 
thropies of  the  present  age,  to  your  humble  birth,  and  reveal 
to  you  your  inglorious  antecedents.  It  may  be  good  for  you 
who  now  loll  upon  sofas  and  survey  with  triumph  your  thou- 
sands of  volumes  to  look  back  fifty-five  years,  and  glance 
your  eye  "into  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  were  digged." 
The  Dialectic  library  of  this  college,  all  of  it,  was  then  con- 
tained in  one  of  the  cupboards  of  one  of  the  common  rooms 
in  the  east  building,  and  consisted  of  a  few  half-worn  volumes, 
presented  by  compassionate  individuals,  and  I  think  it  was  in 
the  habit  of  migrating  from  room  to  room,  as  the  librarian 
was  changed,  for  yoir  may  be  sure  the  responsibility  of  taking 
care  of  such  a  number  of  books  could  not  be  borne  long  by 
one  pair  of  shoulders.  And  besides,  there  was  some  ambition 
to  choose,  as  librarian,  a  man  who  could  wait  on  the  ladies 
with  something  of  that  courtly  grace  whicli  distinguishes  the 
marshals  of  this  polished  age.  But  the  cavaliers  of  that 
f'arly  time,  poor  fellows !  had  to  make  their  way  to  the  ladies^ 


13 


"tiearcs  witliout  any  of  the  modern  artilleiy  of  splendid  sashes, 
moustaches  and  goatees.  Tlie  naked  face,  with  native  flash 
or  native  pallor,  was  all  their  dependance.  The  cupboards 
were  not  only  small  but  full  of  rat-holes,  and  a  large  rat 
might  have  taken  his  seat  upon  Rollins'  History,  the  corner 
stone  of  the  library,  and  exclaimed  with  Robinson  Crusoe : 

"  I  am  monarch  of  all  I  survey, 
My  title  there 's  none  to  dispute." 

Such  was  the  infancy  of  Dialectic  knowledge  ;  such  the 
meagre  fare  provided  for  Dialectic  literary  appetite  in  those 
primeval  days. 

And  what  is  told  of  one  library  may  be  told  of  the  other, 
for  they  were  as  much  alike  as  the  teeth  of  the  upper  and  the 
lower  jaw,  and  as  often  came  into  collision.  When  one 
library  got  a  book,  the  other  must  have  the  same  book,  only 
more  handsomely  bound,  if  possible.  I  am  sorry  to  record 
that  the  contest  between  the  two  societies,  at  that  time,  was 
not  confined  to  an  honorable  competition  which  should  have 
the  finest  library,  or  the  best  scholars  ;  but  that  it  often 
amounted  to  personal  rancor  and  sometimes  seemed  to  threat- 
en a  general  battle. 

The  societies  then  had  no  halls  of  their  own,  but  held  their 
sessions  on  different  nights  in  the  week  in  the  old  chapel, 
without  any  fire  in  the  winter,  and  besides,  with  the  north- 
wind  pouring  in  through  many  a  broken  pane.  Think  of 
this,  ye  pampered  collegians,  of  this  efteminate  age,  and  bless 
your  stars  that  your  college  times  have  come  fifty  years  later. 

Before  I  come  down  to  a  somewhat  later  period,  let  me 
present  you  with  a  sketch  of  the  scenes  going  on  under  these 
old  oaks  in  the  year  1804,  fifty-five  years  ago,  and  let  me 
draw  from  memory,  if  I  can,  a  picture  of  the  4th  of  July  of 
that  year,  tor  that  was  the  commencement  day — the  great 
national  festival  being  then  the  great  college  festival. 

The  waves  of  the  revolutionary  war  seemed  hardly  to  have 
subsided^  and  hence  military  feeling  and  military  habits  in- 
truded upon  academic  shades  and  mixed  themselves  with  the 


14  . 

peaceful  pursuits  of  literature.  The  great  object  of  display 
on  commencement  day  was  not  the  graduates  or  their 
speeches,  hut  a  fourth  of  July  oration,  delivered  by  the 
General,  who  had  been  chosen  by  the  vote  of  the  whole  body 
of  students,  preps  and  all,  for  free  suffrage  then  prevailed, 
and  a  preps  vote  was  as  good  as  any  body's.  The  office  of 
General  and  orator  of  the  day  was,  of  course,  an  object  of 
great  ambition ;  and  while  the  election  was  pending,  we 
preps  felt  our  importance  considerably  augmented.  Like  the 
Xile,  we  always  began  to  swell  about  the  end  of  June  ;  but 
our  inundation  was  sooner  over,  not  lasting  longer  than  the 
fourth  of  July,  On  these  occasions  the  candidates  would 
come  down  among  us  and  take  us  in  their  arms  and  caress 
us  most  lovingly,  and  invite  us  to  their  rooms  in  college,  and, 
I  suppose,  treat  us  there  to  gingercakes  and  cider,  though  as 
to  that  fact,  I  have  no  distinct  recollection  ;  but  all  of  you  who 
are  versed  in  the  ways  of  candidates,  will  admit  it  to  be  very 
probable  that  they  did.  As  well  as  1  recollect,  there  was 
elected,  beside  the  General  or  orator,  the  General's  aid.  On 
this  occasion  Thomas  Brown,  son  of  the  late  Gen.  Brown,  of 
Bladen,  and  brother-in  law  of  the  late  Gov.  Owen,  was 
elected  General,  and  Ilyder  Ally  Davie,  son  of  Gen.  Davie, 
was  second  in  command. 

All  things  being  duly  arranged,  the  General,  clad  in  full 
regimentals,  with  cocked  hat  and  dancing  red  plume,  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  his  troops  (for  we  were  all  turned  into 
soldiers,  for  the  nonce)  and  rnarched  up  to  the  foot  of  the 
"  Big  Poplar,"  where  was  placed  for  him  a  rostrum,  upon 
which  he  mounted,  and,  all  the  military  disposing  themselves 
before  him,  he  gracefully  took  off  his  plumed  helmet,  and 
made  profound  obeisance  to  the  army  ;  and  if  a  prep's  bosom 
ever  throbbed  with  proud  emotions  and  ever  thrilled  with 
anticipations  of  the  pleasure  of  being  a  great  man,  our  hearts 
felt  that  throb  and  that  thrill  on  that  day.  I  can  tell  you 
nothing  of  the  graduating  class,  or  their  speeches.  My  child- 
ish fancy  was  taken  up  with  the  military  display,  though  we 
had  no  music  to  march  to  but  the  drum  and  life.     If  we  had 


15 

had  such  a  band  as  you  have  here  to-day,  it  migiit  have  beeu 
too  ynuch  for  us — lev*'  perhaps  would  have  survived  it. 

The  ball  at  night  was  productive  of  an  incident  of  some 
seriousness  and  importance.  The  old  Steward's  Hall,  which 
■some  of  you  have  reason  still  to  recollect  to  your  sorrow,  was 
then  the  ball-i'ooiti.  The  lioor  was  covered  with  spectators, 
except  tlie  spots  left  vacant  for  the  dancers.  Of  course  the 
-dancers  had  to  pull  their  partners  to  their  position  through  a 
dense  tliicket  of  gentlemen,  five  deep.  This  may  well  be 
■called  "  threading  one's  way,"  I  should  think.  In  such  cir- 
cumstances dancing  in  the  month  of  Jul}',  must  have  been 
delectable  work,  and  must  have  always  involved  the  risk  of 
such  unhappy  rencounters  as  the  one  I  am  about  to  describe. 
Hyder  Davie,  aid- de-camp  to  Gen.  Brown,  in  cutting  the 
pigeon-Vicing  before  his  partner,  came  down,  rough-shod,  upon 
the  toes  of  Henry  Chambers,  of  SaKsbur3^  It  was  borne 
■with,  the  first  time,  as  an  accident  and  overlooked  ;  but  upon 
coming  round  the  second  time,  it  was  repeated,  and  conse- 
quently was  obliged  to  be  considered  as  an  intended  insult. 
The  wounded  toe,  which  is  sometimes  the  seat  of  honor,  called 
'the  oflending  heel  out  of  doors,  and  demanded  an  explana- 
tion. It  resulted  in  an  engagement,  in  which  Chambers 
gave  a  blow  or  two,  for  which  he  received  a  stab  or  two,  in 
the  neck,  from  the  pen-knife  of  Davie  ;  for  in  those  simple 
days  bowie-knives  were  not  invented,  nor  arms  worn,  except 
openly  b}'^  soldiers.  The  next  day  a  solemn  trial  of  the  case 
was  held  in  the  chapel,  by  the  trustees,  among  whom  were 
Gen.  Davie,  Col.  Polk,  (chairman,)  Gov.  Martin,  Messrs. 
Cameron,  Gaston,  'Nash  and  others,  since  the  men  of  mark  in 
our  State.  What  decision  the  trustees  came  to,  is  not  recol- 
lected, but  I  believe  the  combatants  came  off  even.  The 
ladies,  the  next  day,  were  found  to  have  taken  sides,  some 
for  the  heel  and  some  for  the  toe,  like  the  Little-Endians  and 
Big-Endians,  familiar  to  the  readers  of  Gulliver. 

I  will  detain  you  on  this  part  of  my  subject  only  a  moment, 
'to  call  your  attention  to  two  things  characteristic  of  the  age. 
The  first  is,  the  spirit  of  the  times  indicated  by  the  name 
Hyder  Ally,  given  to  his  son,  by  Gen.  Davie,  and  that  ©f 


»;=* 


16  '  »   • 

Tippoo  Saib,  given  to  his  son  by  Maj.  Pleasant  Henderson. 
That  two  such  men  should  have  given  their  sons  such  out- 
landish names,  in  honor  of  two  Hindoo  despots  and  semi- 
barbarians,  because  they  were  at  war  with  Great  Britain, 
affords  a  lively  idea  of  the  old  flame  against  the  mother 
country,  still  burning  in  the  breasts  of  the  surviving  officers 
of  the  revolution. 

The  second  reflection  suggested  by  the  incident  before  ns, 
is  the  diminutive  size  of  the  ladies  of  those  days.  How  un- 
ambitious, how  feeble-minded  they  must  have  been  to  be 
contented  with  occupying  no  more  space  in  the  world,  and 
in  the  eyes  of  men,  to  be  pulled,  that  way,  through  a  zig-zag 
maze  of  rough  arms  and  shoulders,  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
hanging  by  the  hair  or  losing  a  comb  or  necklace  in  the 
transit.  The  ladies  of  the  present  day,  have  learned  too  well 
their  just  rights,  to  be  satisfied  with  anything  less  than  two- 
thirds  of  this  wide,  wide  world.  There  is  no  limit  to  their 
inventive  genius  when  it  is  stimulated  by  an  encroachment 
on  their  rightful  domains.  They  have  added  to  the  dimen- 
sions of  their  fame,  as  well  as  of  their  persons,  by  giving 
birth  to  a  new  order  of  architecture.  A  modern  tine  lady 
is,  herself,  a  novel  and  wondrous  specimen  of  architecture.. 
Look  at  those  two  delicate  little  ankles  t  From  the  time  of 
the  erection  of  the  Parthenon — from  the  time  of  the  erection 
of  the  domes  of  St.  Peters  and  St.  Paul's,  down  to  the  erec- 
tion pf  the  domes  at  Washington  or  Raleigh,  was  it  ever 
supposed — would  it  ever  have  been  believed — did  it  ever 
enter  into  the  heads  of  Phidias,  Michael  Angelo,  or  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  that  two  such  slender  columns  would  have 
supported  so  stupendo'US  a  dome — especially  columns  con- 
structed on  the  most  unartistic  of  all  principles,  the  inverted 
cone  ?  It  can  be  classed  with  no  order  of  architecture  now  ♦ 
extant.  AVe  shall  have  to  invent  a  new  name  for  it,  and  I 
can  think  of  none  more  appropriate-  than  the  Umbrella  Order 
of  Architecture.  They  who  have  dared  to  prop  up  such  a 
magnificent  fabric  upon  such  a  pedestal,  have  found  out  the 
pou  sto  of  Archimedes,  and  can  move  the  universe. 

It  was  at  this  commencement,  I  think  (1804)  that  Greek 


i: 


was  made  a  pai't  of  tlie  college  course.  Gov.  Martin,  IT  F 
recollect,  was  the  proposer  of"  the  measure.  "  Yon  stmly 
logic,"  said  he,  "  and  you  don't  know  the  word  from  which 
the  term  is  derived."  No  doubt  the  Governor  gave  some 
Itetter  arguments  (if  I  had  been  old  enougli  to  cherish  them) 
for  substituting  the  classics  of  Greece  for  those  of  France, 
which  last  had  then  a  factitious  importance  and  popularity 
from  the  recent  splendor  of  Voltaire,  from  our  late  obliga- 
tions to  the  country  of  La  Fa3'ette,  and  from  the  overwhelm- 
ing interest  excited  by  the  first  French  revolution.  A  little 
French  had,  before  this  time,  been  accepted  in  the  place  of 
Greek,  and  a  Frenchman  had  been  a  necessary  "part  and 
parcel "  of  the  faculty.  Of  course,  to  torment  him,  and 
amuse  themselves  with  his  transports  of  rage,  and  his  broken 
English,  was  a  regular  part  of  the  college  fun.  The  trustees 
after  some  experience  found  that  it  was  better  to  have  French 
taught  by  a  competent  American,  though  with  a  little  less  of 
the  Parisian  accent,  than  to  have  to  fight  daily  battles  to 
redress  the  grievances  of  a  persecuted  monsieur.  Greek, 
after  its  introduction,  became  the  bug-bear  of  collc-e. 
Having  been  absent  when  my  class  began  it,  I  heard,  on  my 
return,  such  a  terrific  account  of  it,  that  I  no  more  durst  en- 
counter the  Greeks  than  Xerxes  when  he  fled  in  consternation 
across  the  Hellespont,  after  the  battle  of  Salamis.  Rather 
than  lose  n<y  degree,  however,  after  two  years,  I  plucked  up 
courage,  and  set  doggedly  and  desperately  to  work,  prepared 
hastily  thirty  Dialogues  of  Lucian,  and  on  that  stock  of  Greek 
was  permitted  to  graduate.  As  for  Chemistry  and  Differen- 
tial and  Integral  Calculus  and  all  that,  we  never  heard  of 
such  hard  things.  They  had  not  then  crossed  the  Roanoke, 
nor  did  they  appear  among  us,  till  tliey  were  brought  in  bv 
the  northern  barbarians,  about  the  year  181S.  Yet  notwith- 
standing the  poor  showing  we  could  make  as  to  faculty  ami 
course  of  study,  the  secretarj^  of  the  board  of  that  day,  wa< 
very  ambitious  of  opening  a  sisterly  correspondence  and 
communion  with  all  the  colleges  of  the  United  States.  Ile 
sent  for  all  their  Latin  Catalogues,  and  in  order  to  be  even 
with  them,  made  up,  out  of  his  own  stock  of  Latin,  a  Cata- 
3 


18 

iogue  tor  us,  and  cllfFused  it  through  the  land,  from  Maine  to 
Georgia.  Now  this  was  very  unwise  pohcy  in  that  officer, 
for  we  were  then  in  the  very  egg-shell  of  our  existence,  and 
ouo-ht  to  liave  concealed  onr  nakediiess  from  our  mocking 
brethren  of  the  North.  This  Latin  pamphlet  was,  in  every 
respect,  a  sorry  looking  affair.  It  was  gotten  up  at  Raleigh, 
on  coarse  paper,  and  it  can  be  no  offence  now  to  say,  that 
Raleigh  was  not  at  tliat  era  a  fortunate  place  of  issue  for  a 
Latin  pamphlet.  But  what  was  worse,  it  was  distigured  with 
several  sad  bhnidei's  in  the  Latin  (for  I  don't  know  that  Latin 
is  any  part  of  the  qualifications  of  a  secretary  of  the  board) 
and  exhibited  to  the  admiring  world  the  following  imposing 
Se7iatus  Acadenilcus  :  Pkesidknt  Caldwell,  who  taught 
mathematics,  natural  and  moral  philosophy,  and  did  all  the 
preaching.  Your  humble  servant  was  professor  of  lan- 
guages, in  general,  I  suppose;  all,  ancient  and  modern  ;  and 
William  D.  Moseley  (the  future  governor  of  Florida)  was 
tutor.  The  professor  of  huiguages  was  of  course  responsible 
for  this  elegant  and  classical  production,  in  which,  among 
other  beauties,  I  recollect  the  treasurers  of  the  board  were 
called  in  conspicuous  capitals  tkeasurakii  !  I  writhed'Huder 
the  mortification  a  long  time,  and  was  always  afraid  of  meet- 
ing a  professor  from  the  North,  lest  he  should  ask  me  what 
was  the  Latin  for  treasurer. 

The  South  building,  our  neighbor  over  there,  was  then  in 
an  unfinished  state,  carried  up  a  story  and  a  half,  and  there 
left  for  many  years  to  battle  with  the  weather  unsheltered  ; 
but  still  it  was  inhabited.  "  Ldiabited  !"  you  will  say,  "  by 
what  ?  By  toads  and  snails  and  bats,  I  suppose."  No  sir,  by 
students.     Misiim  tencatis  amiclf 

As  the  only  dormitory  that  had  a  roof  was  too  crowded  for 
study,  and  as  those  who  tried  to  study  there  spent  half  the 
evening  in  passing  laws  to  regulate  the  other  half,  many 
students  left  their  rooms  as  a  place  of  study  entirely,  and 
built  cabins  in  the  corners  of  the  unfinished  brick  walls,  and 
quite  comfortable  cabins  they  were;  but  whence  the  plank 
came,  out  of  which  those  cabins  were  built,  your  deponent 
^aitli  nut.     Suflice  it  to  hint  that  in  such  matters  college  boys 


19 

are  apt  to  adopt  the  code  of  Lycurgns :  that  there  is  no  harm 
in  privately  transfering  propertj-,  provided  you  are  not  caught 
at  it.  In  such  a  cabin  your  speaker  and  dozens  like  him 
hibernated  and  burned  their  midnight  oil.  As  soon  as  spring 
brought  back  the  swallows  and  the  leaves,  we  emerged  from 
our  dens  and  chose  some  shady  retirement  where  we  made  a 
path  and  a  pi-omenade,  and  in  that  embowered  promenade 
.all  diligent  students  of  those  days  had  to  follow  the  steps  of 
science,  to  wrestle  with  its  ditficulties,  and  to  treasure  up  their 
best  acquirements : 

Ye  remnants  of  the  Peripatetic  school ! 
^T  "^  AlPf^  canVtell  how  hard  it  is  to  climb 
"■•        The  stetjp  -^ere  ftime's  proud  temple  shines  afar! 

They  lived  svh  dio,  like  the  birds  that  caroled  over  their 
heads.  "But  how,"  you  will  say,  "  did  they  manage  in  rainy 
weather  ?"  Aye,  that's  the  rub.  Well,  nothing  was  more 
■common  than,  on  a  rainy  daj',  to  send  in  a  petition  to  be  ex- 
cused from  i-ecitation,  which  petition  ran  in  this  stereotype 
phrase  :  "The  inclemency  of  the  weather  rendering  it  impos- 
sible  to  prepare  the  recitation,  the  Sophomore  class  respectfully 
request  Mr.  Rhea  to  excuse  them  from  recitation  this  after- 
noon." To  deliver  this  mission  to  the  Professor  I  was  appoint' 
ed  envoy  ordinary  (not  extraordinary)  and  plenipotentiary, 
being  a  little  fellow  hardly  iifteen,  and  perhaps  somewhat  of 
a  pet  with  the  teacher.  The  Professor,  a  good-natured,  indo* 
lent  man,  after  affecting  some  vexation,  (though  he  was 
secretly  glad  to  get  off  himself,)  and  pushing  the  end  of  his 
long  nose  this  way  and  that  way  some  half  a  dozen  times 
with  his  knuckles,  concluded  in  a  gruff  voice  with  :  "Well, 
get  as  much  more  for  to-morrow."  The  shout  of  applause 
with  which  I  was  greeted  upon  reporting  the  success  of  my 
embassy  resembled,  (if  we  may  compare  small  things  with 
great,)  the  acclamations  with  which  Mr.  Webster  was  hailed 
by  the  nation  upon  happily  concluding  the  Ashburton  treaty 
in  1842,  by  which  war  with  Great  Britain  was  prevented. 
Mr.  Webster  may  have  been  greater,  but  he  was  not  prouder 


*9 


20 

than  I  was  at  the  snccessfnl  issue  of  my  negotiations.  Wh(> 
knows  but  I  might  now  have  been  a  first  rate  diplomate,  if  1 
had  followed  up  these  auspicious  beginnings  !  And  wliat  do 
you  think  was  the  lesson  from  which  a  deliverance  for  one 
day  was  the  occasion  of  such  tumultuous  joy?  Why.it  was 
Morse' s  geography ^  which  w^as  then  the  main  Sophomore  study, 
contained  in  two  massy  octavos,  and  to  recite  off  which,  like 
a  speech,  page  by  page,  was  the  test  and  the  glory  of  the  first  ' 
scholar  of  the  class. 

Dr.  Morse  was.  with  us,  the  great  man  of  the  age,  and  stood 
as  high  as  does  now  his  son^  the  inventor  of  the  telegraph  ; 
and  that  notwithstanding  he  had  stigmatised  our  State  by 
mentioning  under  the  head  of  "  manifs  and  custonr^s  of 
N'orth-Carolina,"  that  a  fashionable  amusement  of  our  people 
in  their  personal  rencounters  was,  for  the  combatant  who  got 
his  antagonist  down  to  insert  his  thumb  into  the  corner  of  his 
eye  and  twist  out  the  ball ;  which  elegant  operation  they 
called  gouging.  This  slur  upon  our  national  character  would, 
now-a-days,  have  banished  his  book  from  the  State.  It  ex- 
cited so  much  the  wrath  of  one  of  our  rei)iresentatives  in 
Congress,  Wm.  Barry  Grove,  of  Fayetteville,  that  he  declared 
if  he  ever  met  with  Dr.  Morsev  he  would  gouge  him.  He- 
did  meet  with  the  Doctor,  who  had  heard  of  the  threat,  but 
instead  of  executing  his  purpose  they  had  a  liearty  laugh  over 
the  story.  Dr.  Morse  alleging  that  he  had  derived  the  account 
from  "Williamson. 

Our  geographical  recitations  were  enlivened  bj'  some  rare 
scenes,  one  or  two  of  which  1  will  venture  to  relate,  though 
they  are  almost  too  farcical  for  this  dignified  assembly,  and 
yet  they  are  among  the  things,  "  as  my  Lord  Verulara  remarks^ 
which  men  do  not  willingly  let  die."     The  class  was  reciting 

on  Greenland.     The  youth  under  examination  was ^ 

I  do  not  feel  safe  to  mention  his  name,  for  he  may  be  here 
among  us  for  aught  I  know,  {the  speaker  looking  anxiously 
over  the  crowds)  but  if  he  is,  he  will  be  easily  known  by  the 
length  of  his  ears,  and  there  are  no  animals  on  earth  that 
bite  and  kick  harder  than  the  long-eared  tribe.  We  will, 
therefore,  indicate  him  by  the  name  Sawney.     Mr.  Sawney, 


21 


sajs  the  Professor,  can  you  tell  ine  anythiug  about  the 
•animals  of  Greenland  'i  "  Yes,  sir,  there's  one  called  the  seal.'' 
Whitt  kind  of  an  animal  is  it?  "I  don't  remember  exactly, 
sir,  but  I  believe  he  says  it  is  a  very  amphib —  a  i^e^'^y  am- 
2)hili(jhas  kind  of  animal,  sir."  The  boys  plagued  liim  about 
this  new  kind  of  animal  until  he  became  as  irntable  as  a  nest 
■of  wasps  by  the  way-side.  Another  student,  whom  we  will 
disguise  under  the  name  of  liiggie,  used  to  amuse  various 
-companies  by  telling  the  story  upon  Sawney.  jSTow  Riggie 
was  the  last  man  that  ought  to  have  made  people  merry  over 
the  blunders  of  others,  for  he  had  got  his  own  nickname  by 
his  ludicrous  pronunciation  of  Riga^o,  Russian  town  on  the 
Baltic.  He  was  asked  what  were  the  chief  towns  in  Russia? 
He  mentioned  several,  and  among  them  Biggie  on  the  Baltic^ 
pronouncing  the  first  syllable  of  the  last  word  as  it  is  heard 
in  halance.  The  name  Riggie  stuck  to  him  forever  afterwards. 
But  it  often  happens  that  he  who  smarts  most  under  a  joke  is 
most  ready  to  avert  pursuit  bv  throwing  ridicule  upon 
others — as  in  the  street,  the  thief,  hearing  the  hue  and  cry 
after  him,  escapes  by  echoing  the  cry  ^'' stop  thief  P''  and 
joining  in  the  chase.  Sawney,  goaded  by  Riggie's  persecu- 
tion, determined  to  avenge  himself;  so  he  laid  a  trap  for  him. 
He  got  a  friend  to  invite  a  company  including  Riggie  into 
his  room,  and  to  call  for  the  story,  while  in  the  meantime, 
Sawney  concealed  himself  under  the  bed.  Riggie,  alas !  un- 
conscious of  the  Trojan  horse  within  the  walls,  was  going  on 
with  his  story,  full  sail,  the  audience  convulsed  with  the  en- 
joyment of  the  present  and  the  anticipation  of  the  paulo-^ost- 
future  ;  when  in  the  very  fifth  act  of  the  dra.raa,  out  popped 
Sawney  from  his  ambush,  and  pitched  into  the  dismayed 
comedian.  I  shall  not  not  attempt  to  describe  the  battle  ; 
but  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  Sawney,  stung  with  wounded 
pride  and  bursting  with  long  imprisoned  rage,  fought  with 
more  desparation,  and  that  his  adversary,  startled  by  a  foe 
emerging  suddenly  from  ambush,  must  have  fought  to  a  dis- 
advantage. That  was  the  last  time  I  imagine  that  Riggie,  or 
any  body  else,  told  the  story  of  amphihiobus,  nor  would  it 
have  been  revived  to-day  had  I  not  trusted  that  a  lapse  of 


22 


more  than  fifty  years  had  either  removed  our  hero  from  the 
reach  of  all  earthly  ridicule,  or  mollified  his  resentment  into 
merriment ;  or  at  least,  that  being  unnamed  in  my  annals,  he 
would  take  care  not  to  write  his  name  under  the  picture  by 
attacking  me.  But  if  he  or  any  other  witness  of  the  facts 
were  here  to  challenge  my  truth  and  to  show  what  a  good 
story  I  had  made  out  of  nothing,  I  suppose  you  all  \\  ould 
thank  him  about  as  much  as  you  would  thank  a  man,  who, 
after  you  had  dined  pleasantly,  as  you  supposed,  upon  a  good 
fat  hare,  should  come  forward,  show  you  the  paws  and  con- 
vince you  that  what  you  had  enjoyed  so  sweetly,  was  nothing 
but  a  cat. 

Such  adventures  as  the  foregoing  were  more  apt  to  happen 
with  sophmores  than  with  other  classes.  To  save  them  from 
the  clutches  of  Dr.  Morse,  on  a  rainy  day,  was  one  of  th© 
chief  honors  of  ray  sophomore  year.  Sophomores  have 
always  been  hard  fellows  to  deal  with.  This  results  from 
their  amphibious  nature,  and  colleges  have  given  them  a 
name  {soj^hos  moros)  expressive  of  their  compound  character, 
partly  wise  and  partly  foolish.  They  are  in  a  transition  state, 
half-man  and  half-boy  ;  their  voice  alternating  in  a  most 
ludicrous  manner  between  the  alto  and  the  lass,  so  that,  in 
the  dark,  you  would  suppose  it  was  two  persons  talking. 
Their  compositions  too  have  the  same  mixed  character  ;  like 
comets  they  have  a  small  nucleus  with  a  prodigious  expanse 
of  tail."^'  Let  not  ray  young  friends  present,  who  happen  to 
be  sophomores,  take  umbrage  at  these  pleasantries.  I  am  not 
describing  the  sophomores  of  the  present  day,  nor  any  specific 
sophomores,  I  am  describing  sophomores  in  the  abstract,  not 
in  the  concrete,  and  of  course,  no  individual  has  a  right  to 
appropriate  the  description  to  himself,  since  the  sophomore 
concrete  has  always  specific  peculiarities  which  shield  him 
from  being  identified  with  the  sophomore  abstract.  Besides, 
the  glory  of  a  sophomore  is  not  in  what  he  is,  but  in  what  he 
is  to  he.    He  is  an  eaglet.     Now  an  eaglet,  just  beginning  to 

*  In  Webster's  Dictionary,  Mr.  Calhoun's  authority  is  given  for  the  word  sophomor- 
ital  in  this  sense. 


be  fledged,  may  not  be  a  very  comely  bird,  and  its  attempts 
to  fly  may  be  rather  awkward  ;  but  then  in  a  month  or  two. 
he  is  to  be  the  bird  of  Jove,  soai'ing  into  the  eye  of  the  sun. 
and  bearer  of  the  thuderbolt. 

JUNIOR    LIFE. 

Let  me  now  give  you  a  sketch  of  junioi'  life,  some  fifty 
years  ago  in  these  precints.  There  being  but  three  teachers 
in  college,  (president,  professor  of  languages  and  tutor.)  the 
seniors  and  juniors  had  but  one  recitation  per  day.  The 
juniors  had  their  first  taste  of  geometry,  in  a  little  elementary 
treatise,  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Caldwell,  in  manuscript,  and  not 
then  printed.  Copies  were  to  be  had  only  by  transcribing. 
and  in  process  of  time,  they,  of  course,  were  swarming  v\ith 
errors.  But  this  was  a  decided  advantage  to  the  junior,  who 
stuck  to  his  text,  without  minding  his  diagram.  For,  if  he 
happened  to  say  the  angle  at  A  was  equal  to  the  angle  at  B, 
when,  in  fact  the  diagram  showed  n<>  angle  at  B  at  all,  but 
one  at  0,  if  Dr.  Caldwell  corrected  him,  he  had  it  always  in 
his  power  to  say  :  ''Well,  that  was  what  I  thought  myself, 
but  it  ain't  so  in  the  book,  and  I  thought  you  knew  better 
than  I."  We  may  well  suppose  that  the  Dr.  was  completely 
silenced  by  this  unexpected  application  of  the  argumenturu 
ad  horiiinem.  You  see  how  good  a  training  our  youthful 
junior  was  under,  by  a  faithful  adherence  to  his  text,  to  be- 
come a  "strict  constructionist"  of  the  constitution,  when  he 
should  ripen  into  a  politician.  The  junior,  having  safely-  got 
through  with  his  mathematical  recitation  at  11  o'clock,  was 
free  till  the  next  daj'  at  the  same  hour.  And  the  first  thing 
he  had  to  determine  was,  what  would  be  the  most  agreeable 
method  of  spending  the  rest  of  the  day.  Shall  he  ramble 
into  the  country  after  fruit,  or  shall  he  go  a  fishing,  or  shall 
he  make  up  a  party  and  engage  a  supper  in  the  suburbs,  at 
"  Fur  Craigs  ?"  The  last  measure  was  often  adopted,  because 
of  our  hard  fare  at  Commons.  Accordingly  a  party  of  some 
half-dozen  would  go  out  and  engage  a  supper  of  fried  chicken, 
or  chicken  pie,  biscuit  and  cofiee.  It  was  waited  for  with 
extreme  impatience,  and  many  yawningsand  other  symptom? 


24: 


=  )!"  an  acliing  void.  At  lenojtb  it  came  upon  the  table,  like 
the  classical  ca-na  of  the  llomans,  about  three  or  fonr  r.  m. 
The  quests  sat  down,  at  tweiity-Uve  cents  per  head  ;  and  if 
you  consider  the  leanness  of  our  dinners  at  the  Stetvardd 
Hall,  you  will  be  apt  to  s\ispect  tl)at  the  entertainer  did  not 
make  much  by  that  bargain.  I'll  tell  yon  what,  gentlemen, 
it  will  do  well  enough  for  you,  who  live  in  these  palmy  times, 
and  fare  sumptuously  every  day,  to  call  the  University  your 
alraa  mater,  your  henigna  yareufs,  and  all  that,  now  that  she 
is  grown  to  be  a  fat,  buxom  lady,  with  a  snug,  dear  income 
of  fifteen  thousand  a  year.  But  when  I  first  knew  her,  she 
was  a  very  poor  woman,  and  her  children  of  those  days 
would  have  more  appropriately  called  her  '"'' pauperima 
mama  /"  for  she  dealt  out  very  scanty  allowance  to  her  family 
either  for  body  or  mind,  and  treated  her  sons  as  movers  to 
our  new  States  treat  their  horses  ;  she  turned  them  out  at 
night  to  pick  np  what  they  coidd.  The  truth  is,  her  mother 
the  State,  acted  a  very  unnatural  part  towards  her,  and,  soon 
after  she  was  born,  seemed  to  take  a  dit^like  to  her  own  of}*- 
s])riug,  and  to  try  to  starve  it.  Do  you  wish  to  know  the 
ordinary  bill  of  fare  at  the  Steward's  Hall,  iifry  years  ago? 
As  well  as  I  recollect  board  per  annum  was  thirty -live  dollars  ! 
This,  as  you  may  suppose,  would  not  support  a  very  luxurious 
table,  but  the  first  body  of  trustees  were  men  who  had  seen 
the  revolution,  and  they  thought  that  sum  w'ould  furnish  as 
good  rations  as  tliose  lived  on  who  won  our  liberties.  Coarse 
corn  bread  was  the  staple  food.  At  dinner  the  only  meat 
was  a  fat  middling  of  bacon,  surmounting  a  pile  of  colewoi-ts; 
and  the  first  thing  after  grace  was  said  (and  sometimes  be- 
fore) was  for  one  man,  by  a  single  horizontal  sweep  of  his 
knife,  to  separate  the  ribs  and  lean  from  the  fat,  monopolize 
all  the  fii"st  to  himself,  and  leave  the  remainder  for  his  fel- 
lows. At  breakfast  we  had  wheat  bread  and  butter  and 
coffee.  Our  supper  was  coffee  and  tlie  corn  bread  left  at 
dinner,  without  butter.'  I  remember  the  shouts  of  rejoicing 
wdien  we  had  assembled  at  the  door,  and  some  one  jumping 
up  and  looking  in  at  the  window,  made  proclamation  : 
''  Wheat  bread  for  supper,  boys !"     And  that  wheat  bread. 


25 


.erwliich  such  rejoicing's  were  raised,  believe  me  geutle- 
nen  and  ladies,  was  manufactured  out  ot  wheat  we  call 
seconds,  or,  as  some  term  it,  (jrudgeons.  You  will  not  wonder, 
'■^  after  such  a  suppei-,  most  of  the  students  welcomed  the 
approach  of  night,  as  beasts  of  prey,  that  they  might  go  a 
prowling,  and  seize  upon  every  thing  eatable  within  the 
compass  of  one  or  two  miles;  for,  as  I  told  you,  our  boys 
were  followers  of  the  laws  of  Lycurgas.  Nothing  was  secure 
from  the  devouring  torrent.  Beehives,  though  guarded  by  a 
thousand  stings — all  feathered  tenants  of  the  roost— water- 
melon and  ))otato  jjatches,  roasting  ears,  iScc,  in  fine  every 
thing  that  could  appease  hunger,  was  found  missing  in  the 
morning.  These  marauding  parties  at  night  were  often 
wound  up  with  setting  the  village  to  rights.  I  will  relate 
one  of  these  nocturnal  adventures,  and  it  was  only  "  unum  e 
jjlurihusy  I  niust  premise  that  Dr.  Caldwell  seems  to  have 
made  it  a  part  of  his  fixed  policy,  that  no  evil-doer  should 
hope  to  escape  by  the  swiftness  of  heels,  and  that  whoever 
was  surprised  at  night  in  any  act  of  mischief,  should  be  run 
down,  caught  and  brought  to  justice.  Whether  the  Doctor 
brought  that  feature  of  his  policy  from  Princeton,  where  he 
was  educated,  or  M'hether,  being  conscious  that  nature  had 
gifted  him  M'ith  great  nimbleness  of  foot,  he  was  a  little  am- 
bitious of  victory  in  that  line,  I  will  not  determine ;  but 
certain  it  is,  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  rambling  about,  at 
night,  in  search  of  adventures,  and  whenever  he  came  across 
an  unlucky  wight  engaged  in  taking  off  a  gate,  building  a 
fence  across  the  sti'eet,  driving  a  brother  calf  or  goat  into  the 
chapel,  or  any  similar  exploit  of  genius,  he  no  sooner  hove 
in  sight  than  he  gave  chase  ;  nor  did  the  youthful  inalefactor 
spare  his  sinews  that  night ;  for  he  knew  that  if  he  ever  ran 
for  life  or  glory,  now  was  the  time.  Homer  makes  his  hero 
Achilles,  the  swiftest  as  well  as  the  bravest  on  the  plains  of 
Troy.  No  foe  could  match  him  in  battle  or  escape  him  by 
flight.  Dr.  Caldwell  was  the  2^odas  okus  Achilles  of  Chapel 
Hill,  and  he  had  more  occasion  for  powers  of  pursuit  than  of 
contest,  for  his  antagonists  uniformly  took  to  flight.  You  call 
this  a  "  fast  age,"  gentlemen,  and  so  it  is.  but  I  don't  know  a 


26 

man  of  this  generation  who  is  faster  than  was  Dr.  Caldwell. 
He  liked  to  go  fast  in  everj-thing,  and  therefore  he  was  not 
satisfied  to  take  two  days  in  getting  to  Raleigh.  He  and  I 
have  set  out  for  the  metropolis  in  the  morning,  and  stopt  the 
first  night  at  Pride's,  ten  miles  this  side,  sucii  was  the  state 
of  the  roads.  Who  knows  but  such  snail-like  progress  as 
this  suggested  to  him  the  first  idea  of  the  present  railroad 
from  Beaufort  to  the  mountains,  the  honor  of  which,  I  believe, 
is  now  conceded  to  him  ?  Now,  O !  muse,  that  didst  inspire 
Homer  to  describe  Achilles'  pursuit  of  Hector,  three  times 
round  the  walls  ot  Troy ;  or  thou  gentler  muse,  who  didst 
breathe  tlu'^  soft  aiflatus  upon  Ovid  when  he  described  the 
race  between  Apollo  and  fair  Daphne ;  or  thou  Caledonian 
muse,  who  didst  preside  over  AValter  Scott,  when  he  sung  the 
race  of  Fitz  James  after  Murdock  of  x\.lpine,  or  over  Robert 
Burns,  when  he  made  in]mortal  the  flight  of  Tam  o'  Shanter 
from  the  witches, — either  of  you  or  all  of  the  nine  at  once, 
assist  me  to  describe  the  race  between  President  Caldwell 
and  Sophomore  Faulkner,  on  the  night  of  the  —  day  of  — , 
IS — .  The  President  lived  at  that  time  where  his  successor 
now  lives,  and  was  returning  about  bed  time  "  from  walking 
np  and  down  upon  the  earth,"*  to  see  if  any  of  the  students 

were where  they  ought  not  to  be.     As  he  was  mounting 

the  style  which  stood  where  Dr.  Wheat's  south-east  corner 
now  stands,  he  spied  two  young  men,  busily  engaged  in 
building  a  fence  from  that  corner  across  the  street  to  the  op- 
posite corner.  This,  by  the  way,  was  always  the  difficulty  in 
carrying  out  the  manual  labor  system  in  our  schools,  and 
constituted  the  grand  distinction  between  negro-labor  and 
student-labor  :  that  the  negro  fenced  in  the  field  and  lioed  up 
the  weeds  ;  the  student  hoed  up  the  cotton  and  fenced  in  the 
street.  The  lads  had  just  before  his  appearance  heard  that 
portentous  snapping  of  the  ankles,  which  was  a  remarkable 

*  Should  any  of  my  more  serious  readers  complain  of  an  impropriety  in  this  quota- 
tation  from  loh  1  :  vii.,  they  will  perhaps  find  an  apology  for  the  allusion  in  the  fact, 
well  known  to  all  alumni  of  that  period,  that  Diaholus  shortened  into  £olus,  was  the 
common  nickname  of  the  President,  and  that  while  engaged  in  their  deeds  of  dark- 
ness, they  would  just  as  willingly  have  seen  the  one  as  the  other. 


27 

peculiarity  of  Dr.  Caldwell's  locomotives,  and  was  very  use- 
ful to  the  evil-doers  in  enabling  them  to  get  several  yards  the 
start  in  the  race.  As  soon  as  they  heard  this  premonitory 
crepitation  (which,  I  suppose,  they  were  wont  to  consider  as 
a  providential  forewarning  of  danger,  like  the  rattle  of  the 
rattle-snaked  one  of  the  fencemakers,  whose  noTn  de  guerre 
was  Dog,  skulked  into  a  corner  and  was  passed  by.  Faulk- 
ner sprang  forward.  But  I  forgot  that  Homer  always  spends 
a  line  or  two  in  describing  his  heroes,  before  he  brings  them 
into  action.  So  I  must  suspend  the  race,  till  I  have  given 
my  audience  some  idea  of  Faulkner's  person  and  character. 
He  was  a  tall,  bony,  gaunt  and  grim  looking  fellow,  with 
shaggy  threatening  eyebrow — had  been  at  Norfolk  during 
the  war  of  1813-'14,  as  a  soldier  or  officer,  and  had  con- 
tracted a  soldier's  love  of  adventure  and  frolic,  and  like 
Macbeth,  would  have  run  from  nothing  born  of  mortal,  if  he 
had  been  engaged  in  a  good  cause.  But  building  a  fence 
across  the  street  at  night,  his  conscience  set  down  as  a  deed 
of  darkness,  and  therefore  proved  like  the  conscience  of  one 
of  the  murderers  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence  in  Shakspeare's 
Kichard  HI.  "This  thing  conscience,"  says  he,  "is  a  blush- 
ing, shame-faced  spirit,  that  mutinies  in  a  man's  bosom ;  it 
tills  one  full  of  obstacles.  A  man  cannot  steal  but  it  accuseth 
him ;  a  man  cannot  swear  but  it  checks  him.  It  made  me 
once  restore  a  purse  of  gold  that  by  chance  I  found.  It  beg- 
gars any  man  that  keeps  it.  I'll  not  meddle  with  it.  It  is  a 
dangerous  thing.  It  makes  a  man  a  coward."  So  it  proved 
with  the  soldier  of  Norfolk  on  that  memorable  night.  His 
conscience  made  him  a  coward,  but  perhaps  it  enabled  him 
to  run  the  faster,  on  that  occasion,  and  he  might  have  es- 
caped, had  any  but  "the  swift-footed  Achilles"  given  chase. 
But  fate  had  doomed  him  to  lose  this  race : 

Forth  at  full  speed  the  fence-man  flew — 
Faulkner  of  Norfolk,  prove  thy  speed, 
For  ne'er  had  sophmore  such  need  ; 
V  With  heart  of  fire  and  foot  of  wind,  ._ 

The  fierce  avenger  is  behind ; 
Fate  judges  of  the  rapid  strife, 


2S 


The  forfeit  death,  the  prize  is  Ufe, 
He  leaves  the  gates,  he  leaves  the  walk  behind 
Achilles  follows  like  the  winged  wind ; 
Thus  at  the  panting  dove  a  falcon  flies, 
.>,  (The  .swiftest  racer  of  the  liquid  skies  ;) 

Just  when  he  holds  or  thinks  he  holds  his  prey, 

Obliquely  wheeling  through  the  aarial  way. 

With  open  beak  and  shrilling  cries  he  springs. 

And  aims  his  claws  and  shoots  upon  his  wings, 

Just  so  around  and  round  the  chase  they  held 

One  urged  by  fury,  one  by  fear  impelled ; 

Thus  step  by  step  where'er  the  Trojan  wheeled 

There  swift  Achilles  compassed  round  the  field ; 

So  on  the  laboring  heroes  pant  and  strain, 

While  that  but  flees  and  this  pursues  in  vain ; 

Thus  three  times  round  the  Trojan  walls  they  fly, 

The  gazing  gods  lean  forward  from  the  sky, 

Jove  lifts  the  golden  balances  that  show. 

The  fates  of  mortal  man  and  things  below ; 

Heie  each  contending  hero's  lot  he  tries 

And  weighs  M'ith  equal  hand  their  destinies. 

Low  sinks  the  scale  surcharged  with  Faulkner's  fate — 

Thus  heaven's  high  powers  the  strife  did  arbitrate: 

Just  then  the  Faulkner  tripped,  and  prostrate  fell, 

And  on  the  sprawling  body  pitched Caldwell ! 

Having  tlius  disposed  of  one  of  the  fenceraakers,  the  vic- 
torious President  went  back  in  quest  of  the  other,  who, 
instead  of  coming  to  the  assistance  of  his  friend,  had  lost  no 
time  in  leaving  the  lield  of  action.  The  President,  after 
beating  the  bush  awhile,  returned  to  the  college,  where,  in 
the  meantime,  Faulkner,  with  clipped  wings  and  fallen  crest, 
had  gathered  a  party  in  one  of  the  rooms,  and  was  telling 
the  fortunes  of  the  night.  Little  did  he  dream  that  his 
exulting  conqueror  was  standing  close  by,  in  the  dark,  listen- 
ing to  every  word,  "  And  what  became  of  Dog  ?"  inquired 
one  of  the  party.  "  Oh !  Dog,  he  took  to  the  M'oods  and  I 
dare  say  he  is  running  yet."  When  the  court  met,  the  next 
day,  to  try  the  delinquents,  it  appeared  in  evidence  from  the 
tutor,  that  Dog  was  the  sobriquet  of  Junius  Moore.  He  was 
accordingly  startled   by  a  summons  served  upon  him  by  old 


29 

Daniel  'Bradley,  the  college  constable,  to  appear  before  tlic 
tacnlty  as  particeps  eriminis_  with  Faulkner.  They  were 
both  charged  with  what  the  lawyers  might  call  tortiously 
doing  a  tortuous  act.  In  plainer  language,  with  feloniously, 
wickedly,  and  with  malice  aforethought,  then  and  there, 
laying  down,  making,  building  and  construeting,  a  Virginia 
fence  across  the  street,  against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the 
8tate.  Gentlemen,  you  who  have  read  Cicero's  graphic 
description  of  the  confusion  of  face  and  dumbfoundedness  of 
Cataline's  accomplices  M'hen  the  consul  confronted  them 
with  all  the  damning  evidences  of  their  guilt,  you  can  con- 
ceive and  none  but  you,  the  looks  and  behaviour  of  the  two 
tencemakers,  when  Dog  was  thus  unexpectedly  arraigned  at 
the  bar.  "  They  were  so  amazed  and  stupified,"  says  Cicero, 
''  they  so  looked  upon  the  ground,  they  so  cast  furtive  glances 
at  each  other,  that  now  they  seemed  to  be  no  longer  informed 
on  by  others,  but  to  inform  on  themselves,"  What  the  fac- 
ulty did  with  the  offenders  I  do  not  recollect^  but  remember, 
young  gentlemen,  it  is  all  upon  the  faculty-book,  and  I  hope 
none  of  you  are  ambitious  of  a  place  in  that  chapter  of  the 
history  of  the  Universit}^  or  to  be  enrolled  in  the  Xewgate 
calendar. 

As  for  Dog^  he  deserved  a  better  name,  for  he  was  a  native- 
born  poet,  and  he  and  Philip  Alston  (a  graduate  of  1829,) 
are  among  the  few  of  our  alumni  on  whose  birth  Melpomene 
did  smile.  Had  Moore  lived  he  might  have  written  some- 
thing to  justify  these  praises,  Alston  lived  long  enough  to 
leave  some  memorials  of  his  genius,  but,  alas !  not  long 
enough  for  our  fame  or  for  his  own. 

"  For  Lycidas  is  dead,  dead  ere  his  prime — 
Young  Lycidas — and  hath  not  left  his  peer  I" 

That  night  was  one  of  tlie  Noctes  Atticw  or  AtuhrosiancB,  if 
you  choose  so  to  name  them,  which  signalized  the  early  his- 
tory of  this  college.  Dr.  Caldwell  was  a  good  man  and  a 
wise  man ;  but  I  wonder  he  did  not  see,  that  the  Olympic 
games   of   Greece   had   not  a    greater    attraction   for   that 


30 

sprightly  people,  than  such  night  adventures  have  for  some 
freshmen — sophomores — ^juniors — shall  I  go  on  ?  and  that  for 
the  chance  of  such  a  race  as  this,  many  a  wild  collegian 
would  run  all  the  risk  of  suspension,  three  nights  of  evory 
week. 

A-ud  here,  perhaps,  it  will  not  be  offensive  to  introduce, 
among  my  reminiscences,  the  shadov)  of  a  reminiscence, 
which  rests  like  a  penumhm  among  the  more  distinct  impres- 
sions on  the  tablet  of  my  memory.  It  relates  to  a  man  who 
has  long  borne  a  conspicuous  and  honorable  part  among  the 
editors  of  our  country— one  of  the  surviving  Titans,  who  has 
planted  his  battery  not  live  miles  from  the  throne  ot  Jove, 
and  hurled  many  a  thirty-two  pounder  at  the  whitehonse  and 
at  the  capitol.  Should  this  page  chance  to  meet  his  eye,  and 
should  he  recognize  in  it  a  faint  nucleus  of  fact,  he  will  laugh 
at  a  college  legend  which  always  hands  down  a  much  better 
story  than  it  received.  President  Caldwell  once  caught  some 
boys  in  mischief;  among  tlie  rest  he  descried  one  on  the  top 
of  the  college,  fastening  a  goose  to  the  very  ridge  of  the  roof. 
"Ah!  Joseph,  Joseph,"  said  he  "I  suppose  thou  art  lixing 
up  that  poor  bird  there,  as  an  emblem  of  thyself"  Perhaps 
that  severe  cut  from  his  teacher  may  have  goaded  the  youth' 
ful  truant  to  throw  away  the  goose  forever  afterwards,  reserv- 
ing only  a  quill  wherewith  to  write  himself  into  renown.  I 
hope  he  will  forgive  me  for  thus'  heralding  Ms  exploits  upon 
the  house-tops. 

The  bell,  too,  that  everlasting  mischief-maker,  could  never 
be  contined  to  its  legitimate  utterances,  as  long  as  its  notes, 
at  dead  of  night,  set  all  the  faculty  on  the  "  qui  vive"  and 
when  a  string,  passing  from  it  to  some  npper  window,  ena- 
bled a  freshman,  to  whom  it  was  a  novelty,  to  create  myste- 
rious music,  as  if  gotten  up  by  the  spirits  of  the  air.  But 
since  the  faculty  have  put  it  upon  the  ground  that  sometimes 
little  boys  come  here  just  after  their  mothers  have  taken  the 
rattles  from  about  their  necks  and  that  they  must  be  amused 
awhile  with  some  noise,  as  a  substitute,  the  officers  indulge 
such  in  bell-ringing  until  they  have  got  their  fill,  and  then 
the  nuisance  is  abated. 


31 

As  for  myself,  being  brought  up  in  the  CaldwelHan  school, 
I  once  did  try  my  hand  at  a  night  adventure,  and  sallied  forth 
to  catch  a  party  of  revellers  in  the  woods.  I  came  upon 
them  by  surprise  and  captured  several,  but  in  pursuing  one,  I 
got  hung  in  a  grape  vine,  which  cured  me  of  pursuing  stu- 
dents at  night. 

There  was  one  other  adventure,  however,  in  wliich  pars 
magna  fui.  As  it  is  cliaracteristio  of  the  times,  i  will  bee 
pardon  for  relating  it.  The  two  societies,  as  I  have  already 
intimated,  were  then  often  at  dagger's  points  with  each  other, 
and  were  sometimes  in  danger  of  a  general  engagement. 
Like  all  young  things,  they  easily  got  angry,  and  had  no  ob- 
jections to  a  tight,  while  older  animals  grow  wiser,  and  find 
peace  much  more  comfortable  and  much  more  dignified  than 
war.  (I  beg  pardon  of  the  august  crowned  heads  that  are 
now  butting  each  other  on  the  plains  of  Italy*.)  On  one 
occasion  the  champions  of  the  respective  bodies  came  into 
collision  and  had  a  desperate  fight,  in  which  one  of  them, 
much  more  of  a  bully  than  the  other,  got  his  antagonist 
down  and  beat  him  most  dreadfully,  though  I  never  heard 
that  he  gouged  him.  It  was  a  kind  of  melee,  several  being 
engaged  on  both  sides.  Dr.  Caldwell  thought  it  absolutely 
necessary  to  adopt  vigorous  measures  to  put  a  st»p  to  such 
outrages.  It  appeared  that  the  bully  had  provoked  the  fight, 
and  was  most  to  blame.  So  a  writ  was  taken  out  to  arrest 
him  and   carry  him   to  Hillsboro',  where  the  superior  court 

.  was  then  sitting.  The  President's  2^osse  comitaius  was  sum- 
moned to  take  him.     The  house  where  he  secreted  himself 

I  was  surrounded,  the  besieged  leaped  out  upon  the  shed,  and 
attempted  to  jump  down;  but  being  headed  on  all  sides,  he 
surrendered  at  discretion,  /was  one  of  the  guard  to  Hills- 
boro'. It  was  a  rainy  night,  the  prisoner  pui-poselj  kept  his 
horse  in  a  walk,  that  we  might  not   bring  him  into  town  at 

*  That  old  cuinnientator  on  the  Bible)  Matthew  Ilenr}',  as  full  of  wit  as  of  wisdom, 

remarks  that  the  prophets  very  titly  represent  the  great  conquerors  of  the  earth. 

.    under  the  emblems  of  lions,  leopards,  bears,  rams,  he-goats,  &c.    If  so,  our  allusion 

in  the  text  is  not  inapposite,  and  the  wjild  need  not  care  much  which  has  the  hardest 

head,  the  ram  or  the  he-goat. 


32  ^        ^ 

night,  as  a  guarded  criminal.  So  we  rode  up  at  breakfast 
time,  like  a  party  of  travelers,  to  the  hotel,  where  the  judge, 
and  prosecuting  officer,  and  a  crowd  of  people  were  standing. 
Our  mitthims  was  examined,  when  lo  and  behold  I  the  justice 
of  the  peace  who  issued  it,  had,  either  accidentally  or  on 
purpose,  left  out  of  the  writ  the  initials  of  his  othce  "  J.  P.," 
and  without  those  magic  letters,  it  was  as  harmless  as  a  lion 
witli  his  head  cut  off.  So  the  whole  proceeding  was  quashed, 
the  prisoner  discharged,  the  expedition  covered  with  ridicule, 
and  the  escort  went  home  pretty  well  sick  of  sheriff's  busi- 
ness. I  beg  you,  gentlemen  in  authority  here,  if  you  ever 
have  a  like  occasion,  remember  the  letters  J.  P. 

While  we  are  passing  over  certain  early  incidents  of  Dr. 
Caldwell's  administration,  before  I  leave  the  subject,  the  au- 
dience will  no  doubt  indulge  me  in  here  introducing  a  brief 
notice  of  one  of  his  most  valued  colleagues  and  coadjutors, 
the  late  lamented  Dr.  Mitchell.  Here  let  us  pause  to  drop  a 
tear  to  the  memory  of  this  martyr  of  science.  He  fell  a 
victim  to  too  great  self-reliance.  This  trait  in  his  character, 
owing,  no  doubt,  in  a  considerable  degree  to  constitutional 
temperament,  was  stimulated  and  confirmed  by  a  New- 
England  education,  in  which  youth  are  seldom  indulged  in 
that  life  #f  ease  and  indolence  so  common  and  so  pernicious 
among  ourselves ;  but  are  early  thrown  upon  their  ow^n  en- 
terprize,  and  invention,  and  industry,  for  providing  their 
future  livehhood.  This  characteristic  of  that  part  of  our 
country,  is  remarkably  calculated  to  develop  all  the  latent 
energies  within  a  youth,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil — a 
stern  necessity  "to  do  or  die" — to  swim  or  sink,  which  may 
produce  a  Frankli;i  and  a  Webster,  or  peradventure  a  Bene- 
dict Arnold — like  the  fierce  sun  of  the  tropics,  which  concocts 
at  once  the  aromatic  gums  and  the  deadly  poisons. 

This  self-reliance  of  our  regretted  friend,  was  conspicious 
from  his  first  appearance  among  us.  It  carried  him  as  a 
botanist,  over  almost  every  hill  and  meadow  and  into  every 
nook  and  corner  of  our  extensive  State,  alone,  and  through 
all  weathers ;  and  led  him,  as  a  geologist,  to  scale  every 
mountain  and  penetrate  every  cavern,  where  nature  might 


33 


promise  spoils  to  philosophic  curiosity.  While  youth  remain- 
ed, he  escaped  unharmed  from  tlie  perils  into  whicli  his 
adventurous  spirit  pushed  him ;  but,  like  Milo,  the  famous 
athlete  of  Crotono,  he  forgot  that  he  was  growing  old,  and 
was  lured  to  his  death  by  too  great  confidence  in  tliat 
strength  and  activity  on  which  he  had  so  often  relied  witli 
safety.  At  his  age  and  with  his  high  position  as  a  savant,  he 
was  entitled  to  an  escort.  He  ought  not  to  have  been  seen 
venturing  alone  and  unassisted  among  precipitous  cliffs, 
to  make  good  l^orth-Carolina's  claim  to  the  Chimborazo  of 
the  Alleganies.  He  ought  to  have  had  a  retinue  of  enthusi- 
astic pupils  at  his  heels,  {magna  co'rmtante  caterva,)  carrying 
his  chain  and  his  compass,  and  his  barometer,  and  his  tent 
and  traveling  chest.  And  I  have  no  doubt  he  might  have 
enlisted  such  a  corps  of  his  pupils  had  he  desired  and 
requested  it.  But  his  self-reliance  seemed  to  scorn  all  help, 
as  a  confession  of  incapacity  and  dependance.  A  bivouac 
in  a  mountain  gorge,  alone  and  far  from  the  haunts  of  men, 
had  something  in  it  inviting  to  his  bold  and  inquisitive  genius. 
I  think  I  have  heard  him  say,  that  in  one  of  his  visits  to  the 
san'C  mountainous  region,  he  had  been  drenched  to  the  skin 
by  a  thunder-storm,  and  had  laid  down  and  slept  in  his  wet 
clothes,  till  the  morning.  That  such  a  man  would  fall  pre- 
maturely by  his  excessive  spirit  of  adventure,  was  naturally 
to  have  been  apprehended,  and  we  might  have  justly  cau- 
tioned him,  in  the  language  of  Andromache  : 

"Too  daring  man,  ah!  vThither  wouldst  thou  run, 
.  Ah !  too  forgetful  of  thy  wife  and  son  ; 

For  sure  such  courage  length  of  life  denies, 
And  thou  nutst  fall,  thy  virtue's  sacrifice!" 

1  have  such  an  opinion  of  my  late  friend's  undaunted 
spirit  of  adventure,  that  I  believe,  if  he  had  been  one  of  the 
scientific  corps  who  accompanied  Napoleon  in  his  expedition 
to  Egypt,  and  if  that  general  had  summoned  them  all  before 
])ira  and  said  :  "I  w^ant  a  man  who  will  go  to  the  biggest 
of  the  pyramids,  find  its  secret  entrance,  explore,  lamp  in 
hand,  its  dark  winding  galleries,  search  its  inmost  penetralia 
3 


r. 


34  •> 

and  bring  out,  if  to  be  found,  the  sarcophagus  of  Clicops 
himself" — I  beheve  that  Ehsha  Mitchell  would  have  stept 
forth  and  said  :  "  I'll  try  it."  He  would  have  been  the  very 
man  to  have  joined  Dr.  Kane  in  his  Arctic  expedition.  That 
daring  navigator  pushed  his  investigations  to  latitude  82°  30', 
the  farthest  hyperborian  point  ever  reached  by  the  foot  of 
science,  and  laid  down  the  coast  to  within  less  than  8°  of  the 
pole.  But  if  Mitchell  had  been  along  with  him  and  Dr. 
Kane  had  detaci'.jJ  liim  on  an  exploring  trip,  I  should  not 
have  wondered  if  the  pole  itself  had  been  discovered,  and 
Mitchell  had  tied  his  boat  to  the  axis  of  the  earth  !  Sh:ide 
of  \{iY  departed  companion  !  forgive  this  sportive  ebullition, 
to  which  I  have  been  tempted  by  the  recollection  of  thine 
•wn  jocose  temper  and  playful  spirit.  How  often,  when  I 
lave  gone  to  thee,  glooiny  and  fretted  by  some  transient 
irritation,  has  thy  contagious  hilarity  and  sunshiny  face  dis- 
pelled the  cloud  from  \\\y  bVow  and  the  spleen  from  my 
temper,  and  I  felt  the  truth  of  that  inspired  sentiment:  "  As 
iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  does  a  man  sharpen  the  countenance 
of  his  friend,"  Of  such  a  man  might  be  said,  in  the  beauti- 
ful langupge  of  Dr.  Johnson,  that  "  his  death  has  eclipsed 
the  gaiety  of  his  country  and  impoverished  the  general  stock 
of  harmless  pleasure,"  as  well  as  of  valuable  science. 

But,  brothers  of  the  alumni,  I  could  not  excuse  myself, 
and  1  should  but  ill  perform  the  duty  committed  to  me  this 
day,  if  I  devoted  the  whole  of  this  address  to  amusing  or 
mournful  reminiscences  of  the  past.  I  wish  to  say  something 
before  I  sit  down,  which  will  be  profitable  for  the  future.  It 
may  be  allowable,  on  a  joyous  anniversary  like  the  present, 
to  entertain  ourselves  and  our  audience,  with  some  pictures 
uf  college  life,  half  a  century  ago.  But  it  becomes  us  as  ed- 
ucated men,  who  have  gone  through  the  perils  and  who  have 
reaped  the  fruits  of  a  collegiate  career,  to  direct  our  thoughts 
to  the  great  question  how  these  perils  may  be  encountered 
and  these  advantages  secured  with  the  least  admixture  of 
evil.  As  lovers  of  our  common  country — as  North-Carolini- 
ans, ambitious  of  the  honor  of  our  State — as  men  bound  to 
feel  for  those  many  parents  who  trust  to  these  walls  their 


35 


dearest  treasure — tbeir  sons,  that  are  to  bless  or  to  blast  their 
homesteads, — we  ought  to  make  it  a  si^bject  of  anxious 
thought,  how  to  prevent  a  great  college  from  being  a  great 
calamity.  As  men  of  reflection  and  humanitj,  we  must  have 
been  often  saddened  b}^  observing  the  vast  amount  of  waste 
in  human  life,  human  talent  and  human  happiness,  which  the 
spectacle  of  our  colleges  presents.  That  there  is  a  strong 
tendency,  when  large  numbers  of  young  men  are  congre- 
gated together,  and  live  to  themselves,  with  very  little  inter- 
mixture with  general  society,  to  become  dissipated,  riotous 
and  lawless,  the  history  of  all  colleges  proves,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe.  The  two  universities  of  England  have 
been  long  famous  as  the  abodes  of  licentiousness  of  all  kinds. 
Mr.  Griscom,  one  of  the  most  respectable  and  intelligent 
citizens  of  I^ew  York,  visited  Oxford  about  forty  years  ago, 
and  after  witnessing  a  digraceful  scene  enacted  by  a  party  of 
students  at  the  hotel"'^  makes  the  following  reflections  :  "  Alas ! 
for  such  an  education  as  this.  What  can  Latin  and  Greek 
and  all  the  store  of  learning  and  science  have  to  make 
amends  in  an  hour  of  retribution,  for  a  depraved  heart  and 
an  understanding  debased  by  such  vicious  indulgence.  I 
cannot  but  cherish  the  hope  that  this  incident  does  not  fur- 
nish a  fair  specimen  of  the  morals  of  the  students.  It  will 
doubtless  happen,  that  in  so  large  a  number  as  that  here  col- 
lected, in  the  various  colleges,  many  will  bring  with  them 
habits  extremely  unfavorable  to  morality  and  subordination. 
But  from  the  information  derived  from  my  guide,  who  was  a 

*  "  Of  the  morality  of  some  of  the  collegians,  I  had  a  most  unfavorable  specimen. 
Four  or  five  of  them  eaae  in  tlie  evening,  to  the  inn  where  I  had  taken  up  my  quar- 
ters, in  tlie  principal  street  in  the  town.  They  entered  the  coffee  room,  where  two  or 
three  travelers  and  myself  were  sitting,  engaged  in  convei.sation.  After  surveying  ns 
and  the  room  for  sotne  time,  they  went  out  but  shortly  after  returned,  seated  them- 
selves in  one  of  the  recesses  into  which  one  side  of  the  room  is  divided,  and  ordered 
supper  and  drink.  Their  conversation  soon  assumed  a  very  free  c:ast,  and  eventually 
took  such  a  latitude  as,  I  should  suppose,  would  set  all  Billingsgate  at  defiance.  They 
abused  the  waiter,  broke  a  number  of  things,  tore  the  curtains  that  enclose  the  re- 
cesses—staid till  near  twelve  o'clock,  and  then  went  off,  thoroughly  soaked  with  wine, 
brandy  and  hot  toddy.  I  was  told,  the  next  morning,  that  two  of  them  were  noUf- 
men."  (A  very  different  thing  from  noble  i,iES.)—GriscoTn's  Fear  in  Europe,  vol.  1  ; 
pp.  60,  fil.  .    :     .         • 


36 

moderate  man,  and  certainly  well  informed  with  respect  to 
the  habits  of  the  place,  and  from  the  observations  which 
forced  themselves  upon  me  in  my  walks  through  the  streets 
and  gardens,  this  evening,  I  am  obliged  to  deduce  the  lament- 
able conclusion  that  the  onorals  of  the  nation  are  not  mucli 
benefitted  by  the  direct  influence  of  this  splendid  seat  of 
learning."  And  although  he  inclines  to  the  opinion,  that  the 
state  of  morals  is  not  quite  so  bad  at  Cambridge,  yet  he 
admits  it  to  be  a  doubtful  question,  and  that  this  is  only  a 
surmise  of  his  own,  and  says :  "  It  would  be  a  curious  and 
interesting  subject  of  inquiry  to  ascertain,  with  as  much 
accuracy  as  possible,  the  comparative  morality  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  as  it  is  admitted  that  in  Oxford  the  collegiate 
studies  are  directed  with  paramount  assiduity  to  moral  phi- 
losophy and  the  higher  range  of  classical  learning,  while  in 
Cambridge,  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy  have  a  tran- 
scendent influence."* 

What  license,  what  scorn,  what  blasphemy,  what  atheism, 
must  the  rowdies  of  Cambridge  feel  at  liberty  to  indulge  in. 
Avhen  they  see  the  disbanded  debauchees  of  the  camp  sud- 
denly turned  into  pastors,  having  the  care  of  souls ! 

This  testimony  relates  to  the  state  of  things  at  those  cele- 
brated universities  forty  yeai's  ago.  Have  things  improved 
there  since  that  date  ?  Let  us  hear  the  testimony  of  Sydney 
Smith,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  literati  of  the  present 
century,  whom  none  will  suspect  of  too  austere  and  puritan- 
ical a  view  of  the  subject.  In  a  letter  written  but  a  few 
years  ago,  to  one  of  his  female  correspondents,  he  says :  "  I 

*  There  is  oue  feature  which  Mr.  Griscom  observed  at  his  visit  to  Cambridge, 
which  is  certainly  siguificant,  and  ominous  of  a  low  state  of  morals.  "  Since  the  late 
peace,"  says  he,  Ttlns  was  written  in  1S19,  soon  after  the  auti-Napolean  armies  had 
been  disbanded, j  "  a  great  number  of  persons,  from  the  army  and  navy,  have  entered 
as  students  of  divi.nitij,  relying  on  family  influence  for  promotion,  and  in  consequence 
of  such  influence,  no  inconsiderable  number  have  been  promoted,  and  over  the  heads, 
too,  of  others,  who  have  devoted  many  years  to  the  duties  of  the  university.  Surely 
no  wound  can  be  inflicted  on  religion  more  deep  and  deadly  than  to  place  a  man  by 
the  mere  dutwrn  of  hierarchical  authority,  in  the  station  of  a  Christian  minister,  who 
is  just  reeking  from  the  camp,  and  who  has  no  qualifications  either  of  head  or  heart 
for  the  solemn  oflice,  and  probably  no  taste  for  any  of  its  accompaniments  except  for 
the  loaves  and  fishes." —  Vol.  2  ;  f.  210. 


3T 

feel  for  Mrs.  about  her  son  at  Oxford,  knowing  as  I  do, 

^hat  the  only  consequences  of  a  university  education  are  the 
ijrowth  of  vice  and  the  waste  of  money."" 

In  the  Gorman  universities  so  far  as  reports  have  been 
published  among  us,  the  state  of  morals  is  even  worse,  the 
frequent  practice  of  duelling;  being  added  to  the  usual^vices 
3f  college  life. 

To  come  nearer  home,  what  has  been  the  experience  of 
our  neighboring  sister  South-Carolina?  ]n  the  beginning  of 
this  century,  she  began  to  awaken  to  the  duty  and  the  policy 
of  providing  means  for  the  home  education  of  her  sons,  who 
had  hitherto  been  educated  in  the  Northern  States  or  in 
Europe.  Somewhat  later  than  we,  she  created  a  State  col- 
lege, and  endowed  it  with  that  enlightened  liberality  worthy 
of  the  intelligence  and  opulence  of  her  leading  men.  But, 
alas !  the  history  of  that  college  proves  how  useless  it  is  to 
make  all  these  munificent  preparations  of  faculty,  of  library, 
of  apparatus  and  of  buildings,  if  there  are  not  materials 
enough  of  the  right  kind  out  of  which  to  make  students — if 
the  young  men  of  the  country  are  reared  up  in  ease,  idleness 
and  luxury,  and  know  that  they  are  rich  enough  to  do  with- 
out an  education.  What  is  the  usual  course  with  such  young 
men  ?  They  go  to  college  ;  they  tliere  find  numbers  of  idlers 
like  themselves,  they  find  study  irksome  and  disgusting, 
pleasure  spreads  out  her  seductions  before  them,  they  are 
indulged  with  plenty  of  money,  and  habits  of  ruinous  dissi- 
pation follow  as  the  necessary  results.  If  they  are  sent 
home,  what  penalty  there  awaits  them  ?  A  horse,  a  gun  and 
dog,  fine  clothes  and  the  ladies!  Who  would  immure  him- 
self in  a  college  cell  with  such  companions  as  Thucydides  and 
his  crabbed  Greek,  or  Loomis's  Differential  and  Integral 
Calculus,  when  by  going  down  street  and  "  getting  up  a  row,'' 
he  can  be  sent  home  to  so  much  pleasanter  employment  and 
company  ?  The  result  of  South-Carolina's  experiment  upon 
a  college,  we  have  from  authority  the  most  unsuspicious  and 
authentic.     One  of  the  most  respectable  alumni,  one  of  the 

*  Life.-  vol  2 ;  p.  402. 


38 

oldest  judges  on  the  bench  of  that  State  has  given  his  testi- 
mony, which  has  been  copied  into  most  of  the  newspapers  of 
the   land.     "I  have   known    that  institution,"   says   Judge 
O'Neall,   "  intimately  since  1811,  when    I   first   entered   its 
walls,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in   saying  that  one-fourth  of 
its  students  have  been  affected  injuriously  or  destroyed  by 
intoxicating  drinks.     Indeed  I  fully  believe  that  one-fourth 
of  its  graduates   sleep  in  drunkards'  graves."     He  goes  on 
to  say,  however,  that  "  notwithstanding  this  dread  scourge. 
South- Carolina  college  has  accomplished  an  immense  amount 
of  good,"    t*^c.     A    valuable   lesson  was   learned   from   the 
results  of  the  Cooper  administration  of  that  institution.     Dr. 
Thomas  Cooper  was  called  to  the  presidency  from  his  high 
reputation    as  a   man  of  science  and  general  learning,  and 
perhaps  with  some  reference  to  his  orthodoxy  on   pohtical 
questions,  then   deeply  agitating  that  State.     It  would  have 
been  hard  to  find  a  man  of  more  multifarious  learning.     He 
was  a  lawyer,  a  statesman,  a  pliysician,  a  philosopher,  natu- 
ral and  moral,  and  somewhat  even  of  a  theologian  ;  but  withal 
he  w^as  an  infidel,  an  atheist.     And  the  college  soon  took  the 
type  of  its  head.     Infidelity  and  irreligion  took  possession  of 
the  seat  and  centre  of  knowledge,  and  therefore  soon  became 
rife  through  the  State.     A  State  college  is  the  eye  of  the 
body  politic,  and  "  if  the  eye  be  evil  the  whole  body  shall  be 
full  of  darkness."    The  college  was  broken  down  by  dissipation 
and  disorder ;  parents  lost  all  confidence,  and  durst  not  expose 
their  sons  to  the  double  danger  of  infidel  principles  and  profli- 
gate example.    At  length  Gov.  McDufiie  in  his  message  to  the 
legislature,  was  obliged  to  report  the  State  college  as  a  failure  ; 
and  though  an  infidel  himself,  he  candidly  admitted  that  the 
prevalence  of    infidel  sentiments  had  destroyed  the   public 
confidence  and  reduced  the  college  to  its  present  low  condi- 
tion, and  he  therefore  advised  a  re-organization  of  the  faculty 
and  a  new  trial  for  success  under  different  auspices.     Accord- 
ingly three  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  State  for  talents  and 
religious  character,  w^ere  installed  as  president  and  professors, 
and  a  special   professorship  was  created  of  Christian  Evi- 
dences.   Very  soon  the  college  regained  its  former  patronage, 


39 

religion  was  respected,  the  gospel  powerfully  preached  twice 
every  Sunday  in  the  college  cliapel,  and  infidelity,  formerly 
triura|>hant  and  open-mouthed,  was  now  silent  and  humbled, 
if  not  extinct.  Here  was  an  experiment  whose  fruits  I  trust 
will  be  permanently  and  extensively  useful,  namely  :  that  a 
litej-ary  institution,  without  the  religious  element  to  leaven 
the  mass,  will  not  be  supported  by  the  people  of  this  country. 
The  University  of  Virginia  had  to  go  through  the  same 
experience.  It  was  the  child  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  whose  infidel- 
ity was  well  known,  and  had  a  contagious  influence  on  the 
leading  public  men  of  the  State.  Xo  provision  was  made 
for  any  religions  worship  or  ]-eligious  instruction  in  the  uni- 
versity. The  institution,  for  several  of  the  first  years  of  its 
existence,  had  a  bad  name  for  vice  and  irreligion — the  reli- 
gions public  mourned  and  complained  that  the  State  univer- 
sity founded  and  supported  by  the  votes  and  the  treasure  of 
the  commonwealth,  for  the  education  of  the  sons  of  the  com- 
monwealth, should  ignore  Christianity,  and  be  given  up  to 
anti-christian  influences.  This  was  the  aiyparent  design,  by 
leaving  out  religion  entirely  in  the  course  of  instruction  and 
in  the  appointment  of  officers.  To  do  Mr.  Jefferson  justice, 
this  seems  not  to  have  been  in  his  contemplation.  Unbe- 
liever as  he  was,  himself,  he  was  too  shrewd  a  politician,  and 
too  well  acquainted  with  the  people  of  this  country,  to  at- 
tempt a  literary  establishment  among  us,  having  none  of  the 
moral  and  popular  influences  of  Christianity.  His  idea  was 
this,  as  I  learned  from  his  own  lips,  wlien  I  paid  a  visit  to 
Monticello,  in  1823,  onl}'  three  years  before  his  death,  and 
but  a  short  time  before  the  university  went  into  operation. 
He  thought 'that  the  established  American  principle  of  non- 
interference in  religious  matters,  and  the  division  of  our 
people  into  different  sects,  rendered  it  improper  and  imprac- 
ticable to  incorporate  in  the  plan  of  the  university  any  pro- 
vision for  the  teaching  of  religion.  But  it  was  announced 
publicly,  that  all  the  religious  bodies  were  authorized  and 
were  encouraged  to  establish,  at  the  seat  of  the  university, 
any  foundations  and  lectureships  that  they  might  deem  expe- 
dient, and  they  were  promised  the  free  use  of  the  library  and 


40 

of  the  lectures  of  the  academical  department.  This  seems 
to  vindicate  Mr.  Jefferson  on  this  point.  But,  as  the  sugges- 
tion above  mentioned  was  not  adopted  by  the  various  reli- 
gious denominations,  after  a  few.  years'  experiment,  the 
absence  of  cliristianity  was  proved  to  be  a  serious  evil,  and 
disreputable  to  the  university.  So  the  faculty  and  students 
by  common  consent,  determined  to  call  a  chaplain  to  per- 
form the  ordinary  religious  services,  and  that  they  might  ob- 
viate the  jealousy  of  religious  sects,  the  chaplain  was  to  be 
chosen  from  the  prevalent  religious  bodies,  in  rotation.  This, 
I  believe,  lias  worked  well,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  all. 
The  present  arrangements  also  give  to  all  ministers  and. can- 
didates for  the  ministry,  the  privilege  of  attending  gratuit- 
ously the  lectures  of  the  professors,  which,  it  would  seem, 
ought  to  appease  all  alarms  and  silence  all  co'mplaints. 
'  The  college  of  which  we  boast  ourselves  to  be  sons,  was 
founded  in  an  era  most  dark  and  inauspicious  to  religion  — 
the  close  of  the  last  and  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 
Our  country  had  just  emerired  from  a  long,  distressing  war, 
and  it  is  well  known  that  war  has  a  hardening  effect  upon 
the  minds  of  men,  familiarizing  them  with  blood  and  deatli, 
and  rendering  them  skeptical  and  indifferent  in  matters  re- 
lating to  a  future  world.  To  this  add  the  overshadowing 
influence  of  Irance.  The  splendor  of  her  philosophers  and 
political  economists  had  then  attracted  the  admiration  of  the 
world;  her  powerful  fellowship  in  arms  had  helped  us  happily 
through  our  struggle  for  liberty,  and  then  her  imitation  of  us 
in  bursting  her  own  shackles, — all  these  ties  had  bound  us  to 
lier  destines  with  an  enthusiasm  and  self-sacrifice  which  had 
well  nigh  engulphed  us  in  the  same  devouring  whirlpool  that 
finally  swallowed  up  her  first  republic.  She  reciprocated  all 
our  enthusiasm,  and  received  our  Franklin  in  Paris  with  the 
honors  of  a  demigod,  condensing  into  one  pregnant  Latin 
hexameter  his  two  greatest  exploits — the  snatching  of  light- 
ning from  heaven,  and  the  sceptre  from  tyrants : 

"  Eripuit  coelo  fulmen,  sceptrum  que  tyrannis."* 

*  Turgot,  the  famous  political  economist,  was  the  author  of  this  beautiful  eulogium. 


41 

Unliappily  wlien  France  overturned  the  throne  and  the 
Bastile,  slie  overturned,  with  the  same  convulsive  throes,  the 
temple  of  God,  and  set  up  as  her  only  object  of  worship,  the 
goddess  Liberty — liberty  not  only  from  the  chains  of  despots, 
but  from  all  belief  in  future  responsibility.  This  portentous 
atheism  spread  its  disastrous  influence  ovei-  most  of  our  pub- 
lic men,  and  hence  the  works  of  A^oltaire  and  his  royal 
patron,  Frederick  of  Prussia,  of  Rousseau,  Helvetius,  Bo- 
lingbroke,  Hume,  Gibl)on  and  Paine,  were  found  in  the 
libraries  of  our  principal  families,  however  small  these  libra- 
ries were.  Some  of  these,  presented  by  trustees  and  others, 
were  among  the  most  conspicuous  books  in  our  university 
and  society  libraries,  in  their  early  beginnings.  As  the  coch 
was  the  national  emblem  of  France,  it  is  hardly  vulgar  to 
quote  here  our  homely  proverb :"  As  the  old  cock  crows 
the  young  one  learns."  Our  first  professors  and  students 
caught  the  Gallic  infection  ;  and  Dr.  Caldwell  among  his 
earliest  dithculties,  had  to  struggle  with  infidelity  in  the 
faculty  and  infidelity  among  the  students ;  and  hence,  among 
his  sermons  of  that  date,  many  will  be  found  in  refutation  of 
objections  against  Christianity.  The  same  ditiiculties  Dr. 
Dwight  was  contending  with  at  Yale  college,  to  tlie  presi- 
dency of  wdiich  he  was  called  a  few  years  l.)efore  this  date. 
From  the  commencement  of  Dr.  Caldwell's  administration 
the  christian  religion  has  been  recognised  and  taught  in  this 
institution,  and  its  laws  have  required  the  students  to  attend 
such  religious  services  as  they  were  called  to  by  the  profes- 
sors. Since  that  time  the  growth  of  the  several  ecclesiastical 
bodies,  has^  made  it  right  and  important  to  consult  their 
wishes  by  representation  in  tlie  academic  corps;  and  it  would 
seem  that  the  best  practicable  plan  has  been  fallen  on  to 
allay  sectarian  jealousy,  and  to  give  Christianity  such  promi- 
nence in  our  collegiate  system,  as  to  impress  our  under- 
graduates with  the  conviction  that  it  is  venerated  as  of 
divine  origin,  and  as  the  religion  of  our  country. 

But  after  all  this  public  provision  for  the  maintenance  of 
religious  influence  and  of  moral  habits,  it  is  a  lamentable 
fact  that  colleges  will  nourish  within  their  bosom,  a  large 


42 

amount  of  vicious?  dissipation,  idleness  and  profusion.  The 
two  great  obstacles  to  government  and  incentives  to  disorder 
are  the  congregation  of  large  numbers  of  youth  into  houses 

■  by  themselves,  and  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks.  AYhether 
we  have  not  made  a  mistake  in  thus  isolating  the  students 
from  family  society,  and  crowding  them  together  in  such 
numbers  under  one  roof,  may  admit  of  painful  doubt.  Judge 
O'Neall,  whom  I  quoted  a  little  while  ago,  gives  it  as  his  de- 
cided conviction,  that  dormitories  ought  to  be  done  away 
with,  and  the  students  distributed  amoug  respectable  families. 
Dr.  James  W.  Alexander,  of  New  York,  one  of  the  first 
men  of  this  country,  an  alumnus  of  Princeton,  and  for  a  long 
time  a  professor  there,  in  a  letter  received  from  him  a  few 
years  since,  says:  "Of  all  absurd  things  in  the  world,  one  of 
the  most  absurd  is  to  put  a  great  number  of  boys  together, 
in  a  large  building,  to  keep  house  by  themselves,"  This  is 
the  first  difficulty,  but  whether  the  plan  proposed  as  a  remedy 
would  succeed  better  has  not,  I  believe,  been  put  to  tlie  test. 
We  cannot  therefore  say  of  the  recipe :  prohatum  est.  The 
other  difficulty,  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  is  the  gigantic 
evil  of  colleges,  and  leads  all  reflecting  persons,  as  well  as 
Mr.  Griscom,  sometimes  to  doubt  whether  all  the  benefits  of 
public  education  are  not  outweighed  by  this  enormous  mis- 
chief to  the  morals  and  happiness  of  our  families.  War  is, 
.  while  it  lasts,  perhaps  the  most  terrific  calamity  with  which 
our  race  is  scourged.  Pestilence  too,  now  and  then,  poisons 
the  common  element  we  all  do  breathe,  and  more  than  de- 
•  cimates  o\ir  cities.  These  evils,  however,  are  intermittent. 
They  leave  long  intervals  of  repose  and  healthful  enjoyment. 

'  But  intemperance,  begun  in  youth  and  often  continued  and 
aggravated  through  tedious  years  of  shame  and  sorrow,  in 
so  many  families — this,  this,  is  the  running  ulcer  of  our  social 
body ;  this  is  the  perennial,  fetid,  stygian  flood,  that  is  circling 
round  and  round  the  land,  and  pouring  its  poisonous  tide 
into  our  sacred  homes.  This  it  is  which  causes  more  human 
hearts  to  ache  and  more  human  faces  to  blush  than  ahy  other 
cause.  In  vain  have  been  all  your  temperance  societies. 
In  vain  your  temperance  lecturers  have  been  sent  through 


43 

the  leDgtli  of  the  land— gifted  with  tragic  powers  to  make 
the  pnl>Hc  weep  over  the  hurroi-s  of  drunkenness,  and  with 
comic  powers  to  make  the  drunkard  the  laughing  stock  ot 
the  world.  In  vain  have  been  all  these  schemes  to  abate 
the  nuisance.  Intemperance  has  grown  under  all  these  ap- 
pliances, like  the  cancer  spreading  under  the  surgeon's  knife, 
or  the  Hydra  multiplying  its  heads  under  the  club  of  Her- 
cules. .  f  ■ 

Alas !  Leviathan  is  not  thus  tamed  ; 
Laughed  at  he  laughs  again,  and  stricken  hard, 
Turns  to  the  stroke  his  adamantine  scales, 
That  fear  no  discipline  from  human  hands. 

And  if  this  disease  is  so  pernicious  in  its  sporadic  form, 
turning  a  home  here  and  a  home  there  into  a  habitation  of 
wretchedness,  what  must  it  be  when  concentrated  in  a  public 
institution,  a  multitude  countenancing  and  stimulating  each 
other,  "  despising  the  shame,"  and  by  their  united  strength 
breaking  down  every  barrier !  A  college  thus  tainted  is 
like  our  great  western  river,  with  all  its  swollen  affluents, 
bursting  all  the  embankments,  and  carrying  terror,  and  de- 
vastation, and  malaria  over  the  fruitful  valley  which  it  ought 
to  adorn  and  fertilize.  For  this  single  vice  is  at  the  root  of 
all  collegiate  disturbances  and  delinquencies.  Of  every 
drinking  student  may  be  said  what  was  said  of  Judas  Iscar- 
iot :  "  With  the  sop  Satan  entered  into  him."  Hence  all  the 
counsels  of  educators,  all  the  ingenuity  of  physicians,  all  the 
discoveries  of  chemistry,  all  the  wisdom  and  power  of  legis- 
lative bodies,  should  be  put  in  requisition  to  contend  with 
this  portentous  mischief.  And  he  who  shall  discover  a  cure 
or  even  an  alleviation  of  this  curse  of  humanity,  will  deserve 
a  monument  higher  and  more  enduring  than  the  pyramids, 
and  be  entitled  to  a  gratitude  deeper  and  wider  than  that 
accorded  to  Dr.  Jenner,  who  has  relieved  the  world  of  the 
terrors  of  small  pox.  Premiums  are  offered  for  all  improve- 
ments in  the  industrial  and  economical  arts,  and  for  the  best 
essays  on  all  moral  subjects ;  but  the  richest  premium  will  he 
deserve,  who,  by  some  chymic  art,  shall  make  young  colle- 


44: 


gians  loathe  intoxicating  drhiks,  or  by  some  happy  improve- 
ment in  political  economy,  shall  drive  ardent  spirits  out  of 
the  land  as  an  article  of  manufacture  or  of  commerce.  The 
might  of  man  has  failed  ;  may  we  not  appeal  to  the  softer 
but  more  potent  influence  of  vhiinanf  Will  not  the  ladies, 
themselves  sale  and  superior  to  this  infirmity,  come  to  the 
rescue  of  our  powerless  sex?  We  are  called  the  stronger 
sex  and  they  the  weaker ;  but  as  to  temptations  to  vice  they 
are  the  stronger  and  we  are  the  weaker  sex.  I  have  the 
same  opinion  of  them  that  Lord  Chatham  had  of  the  English 
soldiers:  "They  can  achieve  anything  but  impossibilities."* 
They  are  not  good  at  making  large  bargains,  I  admit,  as  is 
proved  by  the  price  they  have  agreed  to  give  for  Mt.  Ver- 
non; but  even  there,  the  bargain  is  to  their  credit,  showing 
that  they  est'mate  the  "  valne  received,"  not  in  the  worth  of 
the  land,  but  in  the  testimony  of  national  gratitude  and  in 
sending  an  embassador  around  the  land  to  teach  in  honied 
accents,  the  grandest  lesson  this  family  of  matrons  can  learn, 
namely  :  by  loving  their  common  father,  to  love  and  cherish 
the  united  republic  which  lie  lived  and  labored  and  suff'ered 
to  establish.  Let  those  who  have  entered  with  so  much  zeal 
into  this  national  "labor  of  love"  now  join  their  hearts  in 
another,  touching  more  nearly  the  happiness  of  their  country 
and  of  the  world.  Let  them  proclaim  with  their  sovereign 
voice,  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other,  that  their 
smiles  and  their  hands  are  the  prize  of  sobriety  alone.  From 
all  their  lips  let  there  be  heard  the  general  chorus : 

Young  men,  young  men  who  love  your  drink, 
Your  bark  of  hope  and  bliss  must  sink ; 
We'll  never  trust  with  you  our  life — 
You  cannot,  shall  not  have  a  wife. 

I  venture  with  diffidence  to  make  the  following  sugges-, 
tions.  It  seems  hopeless  to  put  a  stop  to  the  use  of  all  stimu- 
lating drinks.     All  nations  have  used  them,  and  God  consti- 

*  The  French  hare  a  proverb  that  truly  expresses  the  power  of  woman  :  "  Les 
femmes  pouvent  tout,  parcequ'elles  gouvernent  les  personnes  qui  gouvernent  tout." 


45 

tilted  wine  with  corn  as  a  part  of  his  special  gifts  to  his 
people,  in  the  Holy  Land.     Tlins  the  inspired  writer  says  : 
"  He  cansetli  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle  and  herb  for  the 
service  of  man,  and  wine  that  maketh  glad  the  heart  of  man, 
and  oil  to  make  his  face  to  shine,  and  bread  which  strength- 
cneth  man's  heart."     Here   you  find  wine  mentioned   like 
grass  and  herb,  and  oil,  and  bread,  as  gifts  equally  expressive 
of  the  kindness  of  Heaven.     What  God  gives  as  a  tonic  and 
stimulant,    along   with    the    nutriment    of    man,    cannot,    if 
soberly  and    prudently  used,  be  hurtful    either   to    body  or 
mind.     In  conformity  with  these  providential    bestowments 
of  the  old  dispensation,  we  find  the  Saviour,  in  the   New 
Testament,  using  wine  at  his  meals,  though  it  exposed  him  to 
the  slander  of  being  a  wine-bibber — turning  water  into  wine 
for  the  use  of  the  guests,  at  a  marriage  banquet,  and  appoint- 
ing wine  to  be  used  at  his  own  sacred  supper.     jSTow  I  by  no 
means  intend  it  to  be  unders'ood  that  because  in  that  day 
and  country  the  fermented  juice  of  the  grape  was  a  native 
product  and  a  licensed    beverage,  therefore  the   adulterous 
and  poisonous  mixtures  in  use  among  us  are  lawful  and  expe- 
dient; nor  would  1  be  understood  as  saying  that  the  banish- 
ment of   even  pure  wine  would  be  beyond   the   right  and 
duty  of  college  authorities,  any  more  than  it  would  be  beyond 
their  right  to  prohibit  a  certain  kind  of  food,  if  it  was  found 
that  that  kind  of  food  led  generally  to  gluttony  and  sickness. 
Besides,  in  modern  times  so  many  other  beverages  have  been 
introduced,  less  dangerous  and  perhaps  more  nutritious,  that 
we  have   less  reason   to  use  the  wine  of  the  shops,  which  is 
anything  else  but  the  juice  of  the  grape.     But  what  I  am 
now  aiming  at  is  this :  to  inquire  whether  we  could  not,  by 
introducing  the  vine   among  our  agricultural  products,  make 
within  ourselves  a  domestic  beverage,  safe  and  pleasant,  and 
drive   out  the   pestiferous   liquors,  foreign    and   homemade, 
which  are  now  the  bane  of  our  land.     An  enlio-htened  for- 
eigner  from  Germany,   Mr.   Schweinitz,  who  was  honored 
with  a  seat  in  the  board  of  trustees,  and  who  used  sometimes, 
to  visit  this  place,  declared  that  this  locality  where  we  now 
are,  was  the  very  country  for  the  grape  and  the  manufacture 


46 

of  wine.  Why  should  not  our  enlightened  and  more  wealthy 
farmers,  who  can  afford  to  make  the  experiment,  instead  of 
forever  moving  round  in  the  same  circle  of  crops,  (corn, 
wheat,  cotton,  tobacco,)  venture  upon  the  culture  of  the 
grape  and  an  experiment  in  wine,  at  first  on  a  small  scale  ?* 
If  our  country  should  be  found  capable  of  producing  light 
wines,  harmless  as  a  common  drink,  it  might  have  a  greater 
efl:ect  in  promoting  temperance  than  the  effort  at  total  absti- 
nence. It  is  admitted  that  the  people  of  France  are  in 
general  temperate,  though  the.  use  of  wine  is  universal,  and 
that  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  see  a  drunken  man  in  that  country. 
Mr.  Hentz,  formerly  professor  of  French  in  this  college,  who 
spent  his  early  life  in  Paris,  used  to  say  that  he  never  saw  a 
drunken  man  till  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  that  he 
was  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  singularity  of  his  behaviour, 
ascribing  it  to  a  derangement.  This  superior  sobriety  of  that 
light,  and  giddy,  and  impetuous  nation,  cannot  be  attributed 
to  any  moral  cause,  and  is  proloably  due  to  the  fact  that  a 
cheap  and  innocuous  beverage  is  accessible  to  everv  body. 
In  the  absence  of  wine  fi'om  our  country,  might  not  some 
other  innocent  liquors  be  brought  into  use — beer,  mead,  cider, 
raspberiy  wine,  tfec.  ?  At  Princeton,  when  I  was  there  in 
1813,  malt  beer  was  a  part  of  the  college  dinner ;  and  in 
Yale  college,  it  was  allowed  as  a  perquisite  to  an  indigent 
student,  to  sell  liquors  of  that  kind  to  the  students  ;  whether 
it  was  abandoned  at  both  of  those  great  institutions,  as  lead- 
ing to  injurious  consequences,  I  never  heard.  I  throw  out 
these  suggestions  with  some  apprehension  lest  a  bad  use  may 
be  made  of  them,  but  the  disease  is  so  desperate  it  warrants 
bold  experiments.  From  long  thought  and  experience  and 
from  the  high  authorities  I  have  quoted,  I  have  been  led  to 
form  the  theory  of  a  college,  of  Mdiich  if  my  audience  will 

*  I  annex  Ihe  following-  recent  document  on  this  subject : 

Wine  in  Ohio. — An  experienced  writer  who  has  one  of  the  best  vineyards  in  Ham- 
ilton coHnty,  says  that  tour  hundred  gallons  of  wine  per  acre  may  be  safely  depended 
upon  this  year,  as  the  product  of  the  grape  crop.  The  fermented  juice  of  the  grape 
readily  commands,  when  new,  an  average  of  |1  25  per  gallon.  At  the  above  rate  the 
crop  will  yield  fSOO  per  acre— about  the  most  profitable  crop  that  is  produced  in  thir 
countrv. 


4T 

have  patience  with  me  I  will  give  them  a  brief  outline.  It 
is  impracticable,  to  be  sure,  in  an  old  country,  and  where  all 
the  expenditures  of  buildings  have  been  already  incurred. 
But  I  cannot  help  desiring  to  avail  myself  of  so  large  an 
audience  to  present  my  thoughts  on  this  subject  for  the 
consideration  of  an  enlightened  public.  The  generous  dona- 
tions by  Congress  of  extensive  lands  for  educational  purposes 
in  our  new  States,  would  have  fui-nished,  and  in  some  may 
yet  furnish  most  fiivorable  opportunities  and  facilities  for 
carrying  such  a  plan  into  execution  :  .  Let  a  tract  of  one  or 
more  square  miles,  healthy  and  beautiful  in  its  aspect,  and 
having  an  abundance  of  tine  water,  be  selected  as  the  loca- 
tion. Let  this  territory  remain,  in  jjerjyet'mim^  the  property 
of  the  trustees;  let  not  a  foot  of  it  be  sold.  Let  a  village  be 
laid  out  in  convenient  lots,  and  let  respectable  families  be 
invited  to  lease  them,  for  a  term  of  years,  and  put  up  suitable 
houses,  obligating  themselves  to  take  a  certain  number  of 
boarders,  and  to  keep  no  intoxicating  drinks,  under  penalty 
of  ejectment.  This  would  give  the  trustees  a  control  over 
the  population,  and  enable  them  to  exclude  all  improper 
inhabitants.  The  only  public  buildings  then  required  would 
be  houses  for  professors  and  public  rooms  for  lectures,  library 
and  apparatus ;  and  the  large  sums  heretofore  expended  in 
providing  dormitories  would  be  saved  for  endowing  profes- 
sorships and  scholarships,  and  procuring  librar}^  and  apparatus. 
This  plan  would  promise  to  obviate  the  disturbances  incident 
to  a  steward's  table,  the  disorders  generated  by  having  large 
iiumbers  in  one  house,  and  would  if  settlers  of  the  right  sort 
could  be  obtained,  promote  gentility  of  manners  by  inter- 
course with  private  tamilies,  and  in  case  of  sickness  secure 
requisite  quiet  comfort  and  attendance. 

Such  is  the  theory,  and  a  fair  vision  it  affords ;  but  I  am 
distrustful  of  all  theories,  and  I  should  like  to  know  whether 
there  is  anywhere  an  institution  on  this  plan,  and  how  it 
works.  Favorers  of  things  as  they  are,  and  conservatives 
suspicious  of  innovations,  I  confess  niay  overcast  this  fair 
vision  with  forebodings  of  ills  still  greater  than  the  present. 
A  prophet  less  hopeful  and  perhaps  more  sagacious  than  I, 


,.  ,       ■  48  4 

may  descry  looming  in  the  dim  future  visions  of  landlords 
with  broken  heads  for  informing  the  faculty  that,  last  night, 
there  was  a  card  and  wine  party  up  stairs — visions  of  enam- 
ored students  and  love-sick  daughters  in  every  boarding 
house ;  Oorydon  sighmg  for  Chloe,  and  Chloe  sighing,  not  for 
Corydon  but  for  Daphnis — then  dark  spectres  of  Corydon 
and  Daphnis  in  deadly  strife — Amyntas 

"  Sporting  with  Amaryllis  in  the  shade, 
Or  with  the  tangles  of  Neara's  hair,"* 

instead  of  with  his  Demosthenes  and  Plato, — the  scene  wind- 
ing up  with  five  matches  on  commencement  night  between 
so  many  graduates  and  so  many  danglUers  of  their  respective 
landlords.  Alas !  I  should  have  to  insert  among  the  condi- 
tions of  my  Utopian  colony  that  the  landlords  should  have 
no  daughters,  or  should  send  them  all  off  to  school.  These 
dark  possibilities  clouding  my  fairy  vision,  will,  I  fear,  prevent 
its  ever  being  realized,  and  induce  the  old  fogies  to  fold  their 
arms  in  scornful  tranquility,  saying :  "  All  the  difference  be- 
tween the  old  plan  and  the  new  one  will  bo,  that  instead  of 
having  one  ^Etna,  with  now  and  then  a  "  great  blow-out  and 
have  done  with  it,"  you  will  have  fifty  little  smithies,  with 
the  roar  of  the  bellows,  the  clanging  of  the  anvil  and  the 
showers  of  spaiks  forever  annoying  you.''  So  we  see  that 
on  this,  as  on  most  subjects,  "  much  may  be  said  on  both 
sides." 

After  so  long  an  address,  can  I,  ought  I  to  be  insensible  to 
the  flattering  attention  and  mar'cs  of  approbation  with  which 
it  has  been  received?  I  well  know  what  has  worked  so 
mio"htily  in  my  favor.  Xever  was  speaker  more  fortunate  in 
the  temper  of  the  house.  Among  the  charms  which,  accord- 
in  o-  to  old  Homer,  Jove  conferred  upon  his  darling  daughter, 
Venus,  was  that  of  jyhilommeides ,'  she  was  the  queen  of 
smiles,  the  laughter-loving  Aphrodite.  So  the  presence  of 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Union  has  made  every  one  joy- 
ous— it  has  given  me  a  laughter-loving  audience,  and  among 

*  Milton's  Xijcidas. 


49 

thera  many  a  Venus,  with  lambent  lightnings  playing  about 
her  eyes,  encircled  with  the  irresistible  Cestus,  and  with  the 
little  rogue  Cupid  sitting  at  her  feet  ever  sharpening  his 
burning  arrows  on  a  bloody  whetstone.* 

And  if  I  owe  an  apology  to  my  kind  and  indulgent  audi- 
ence for  the  parti-colored  character  of  this  address,  this 
motley  mixture  of  the  serious  and  the  ludicrous,  here  is  my 
defence  :  Such  is  life,  in  which  shade  and  sunshine  chase  each 
other  over  the  plain — in  which  joy  and  sorrow  rapidly  alter- 
nate in  our  hearts — in  which  smiles  often  shine  through  our 
tears  and  dry  them  up — and  again  tears  start  forth  and  ex- 
tinguish the  light  of  our  smiles.  Such  is  life,  and  such  did 
Shakspeare,  the  greatest  painter  of  life,  represent  it.  His 
pictures  of  man  are  neither  unmixed  tragedies  nor  unmixed 
comedies,  but  tragi-comedies.  Such  alternations  seem  to  be 
our  Creator's  design. 

The  lights  and  shades,  whose  well-accorded  strife, 
Give  all  the  strength  and  color  of  our  life. 

Sorrow  in  advance  makes  the  arrival  of  gladness  more  glad, 
and  sorrow  apprehended  in  the  future  chastises  and  tempers 
the  transports  of  present  pleasure,  and  mingles  all  our  re- 
joicings with  salutary  trembling. 

Alas !  by  some  degree  of  wo, 

We  every  bliss  must  gain ; 
The  heart  can  ne'er  a  transport  know, 

That  never  knew  a  pain. 

And  yet  something  whispers  me  that  the  retrospect  I  have 
taken  ought  to  have  inspired  a  more  serious  strain.  Of  the 
long  line  of  alumni  with  whom  I  have  been  contemporary, 
how  few  survive ! 

Apparent  ran  mantes  in  gurgite  vasto. 

*  "  Ridtt  Venus,  ferus  et  Cupido, 
Semper  ardentes,  acuens  sagittas, 
Cote  cruenta."  IMur, 

4 


50 

Of  seven  eminent  men  witli  whom  I  have  had  the  honor 
to  co-operate  as  professor  in  this  institution,  six  have  now 
passed  off  from  the  stage  of  action.  Caldwell,  Hentz, 
Mitchell,  Andrews,  Anderson  and  Olmsted  are  no  more. 
Their  accents  which  once  contributed  to  enlighten  and  adorn 
our  State,  are  now  hushed  in  the  voiceless  grave,  and  per- 
haps ere  another  anniversary  revolves  around,  and  brings 
you  together  again,  the  two  who  yet  remain  will  be  gathered 
with  those  who  have  gone  before  them.  To  one  who  looks 
back  fifty  or  sixty  years,  what  a  shadow  is  man  !  how  fleet- 
ing, how  trifling  do  seem  all  his  interests  and  schemes,  his 
hopes  and  his  fears !  The  thought  extorted  a  sigh  even  from 
a  pagan  moralist : 

"  0 !  curas  hominum !  0 !  quantum  est  in  rebus  inane."* 

How  fading  the  honors  of  earth,  how  empty  the  applause 
of  men  I  But  happy,  thrice  happy  we,  that  this  fading  pa- 
geant is  not  all, — that  our  deathless  souls,  never  satisfied  with, 
the  limited  and  transient,  and  always  reaching  after  some- 
thing illimitable  and  infinite,  shall,  if  purified  by  religion,  enter 
upon  a  state  where  all  our  companions  and  joys  shall  be 
perfect  and  unchangable : 

Where  Time,  and  Pain,  and  Chance,  and  Death  expire ; 

Where  momentary  ages  are  no  more ; 

Where  seraphs  gather  immortahty, 

On  Life's  fair  tree,  fast  by  the  throne  of  God. 

*  Persius. 


